The Wandering Road
by LadyChi and Kat Morning
Summary: Journeys are strange things. Sometimes you find things in the search that you didn't even know were lost. Destinations and people change, but it's not the final outcome, it's the journey itself that matters.
1. Something's Lost That Must Be Found

**The Wandering Road**

by LadyChi and Kat Morning

**Summary: **Journeys are strange things. Sometimes you find things in the search that you didn't even know were lost. Destinations and people change, but it's not the final outcome, it's the journey itself that matters.

.:Chapter 1:.

Three days. Three days of travel from Kyoto had become one week, and was now stretching towards two. Something, Kaoru knew, was wrong. And not just wrong. Bordering on worldwide crisis... Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, Kaoru thought ruefully as she paced from one edge of her kitchen to the other.

The unmassacred portions of dinner cowered on the cutting board, waiting for Yahiko to return and rescue the meal after an emergency trip to the Akabeko for more supplies. Kaoru's contribution, complete with wood splinters matching the gouges made in the cutting board, now rested in a bucket just outside the door.

She would have done better, she mused, if she hadn't been so worried about Kenshin, the thoughtless fool. She hadn't really been worried until yesterday, when she'd recieved Misao's carefully worded note. Kenshin had sent word that he would arrive on Monday. It was Wednesday. Had something delayed his trip?

'Of course something delayed him!' she thought darkly. Whether the delay came from a ghost from his shadowed past with an over-inflated sense of vengeance, or from the overprotective and caring nature that endeared him to her, her rurouni rarely made it home on time. Still, she fumed, a week?

"Kaasan?" There was a soft tug on her kimono, and Kaoru schooled her expression to something a little less murderous.

"Hmm, what is it, Kenji?"

"When will Daddy be home? Yahiko-nii said he would be home any day now."

"Soon, Kenji-chan," Kaoru reassured her son, scooping him up into her arms and cuddling him instead of pacing. Kenji allowed the attention after only a token squirm and wrapped his small arms around his mother's neck. After a moment, Kaoru put Kenji back on the floor and gave him a gentle shove towards the open shouji. "Why don't you go watch for Yahiko?"

"Hai, Kaasan! I'll pick you some flowers, okay?"

"Okay, Kenji-chan. Be careful," she added needlessly, as she often did. It was just that he so often reminded her uncannily of his father, who often got into situations, not out of a desire to find trouble, but because trouble had such an easy time locating him. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the case now...

Regardless, she kept an ear out for crashes, yelps, or swearing coming the direction of her son. The last occurence wouldn't usually be Kenji, unless Sano was around and Kaoru had corrected that with a fast bokken and a dose of dire imprecations, but it could indicate Yahiko's return with the rest of dinner.

In the meantime, Kaoru took out her knife and began to hack away at some of the remains of her attempt. She might practice the sword that gives life, but she still believed very firmly in the therapeutic value of chopping what was once whole into very, very tiny pieces.

The creaking rustle of the front gate followed by Yahiko's "Tadaima!" heralded the return of her apprentice. A startled shout moments later heralded a sneak attack by Kenji on Yahiko's person. At this, Kaoru dropped the knife, and hurried to the door, hoping Kenji had not dropped out of a tree on the hapless apprentice, again, and truly sabotaged dinner, again.

Unmuffled, high-pitched shrieks assailed Kaoru's ears, but she smiled. Coming out of the dojo, she saw what she knew she would see. Her son, like his father, was an innately talented ki-reader. However, he did not possess the years of experience that Yahiko had in sensing ambushes. As such, her red-headed bundle of joy was suspended by his feet, hanging upside down in the capable arms of her apprentice.

A collection of jars and covered bowls sat a safe distance away from the shrieking pair. More, in fact, than Kaoru had expected Yahiko to return with, meaning that Tae had taken pity on them, or was starting to worry that the trio would starve in Kenshin's absence.

Or perhaps, there was another explanation... Kaoru let the romantic thought swirl around her head before she forcefully brought herself back down to reality to control her two boys. "Yahiko! Kenji-chan! There is a hungry woman in this dojo! Bring the food inside quickly." The look on their faces was comical as they both realized how hungry they were as well.

With a flurry of activity, Tae's donated dinner was whisked into the building and on the table. Kaoru, settled in her usual place, caught her eyes and attention straying and her irritation with her wayward rurouni vying for attention with her worry. Part of her wanted to bokken her irritation into his red-haired skull, or at least banish him to the storage room for a few nights. A smaller part was tempted to send a message to the Kyoto Oniwabanshu pestering Misao for more information. The largest part just wanted the idiot back home, even if she had to walk out the front gate and board the next train to Kyoto.

Yahiko sat down and studied the meal for a moment before he and Kenji looked at each other and exchanged a small nod. "Itadakimasu!" they shouted in unison, and grabbed for food in a manner somewhat resembling greedy raccoons.

"Hey, Tanuki-chan, you'd better grab some before it's all gone, ne?" Jerking her attention back to the table, Kaoru realized that a large amount of the food had already been portioned out.

"Yahiko, Kenji, you should have saved some more…." A knock on the dojo alerted her to the presence of someone else shortly before she heard the door slide open.

Kaoru's hand dropped to her bokken, which she had tucked beside her on the tatami, as she shifted enough that she could turn to see and, if need be, roll to her feet easily, or dodge out of the way and take Kenji with her. She caught Yahiko's hand wrapping around the hilt of his shinai as a tall shadow fell over the three of them and a whump of cloth hitting tatami sounded beside the door.

Kenji shrieked at the sight of the tall man filling the door and launched himself past her like a tiny bolt of foxfire, to himself onto the person of their guest. He caught the tiny boy with one large hand and moved his head back to avoid Kenji's grasping fingers as they reached for his shaggy black hair. Grinning, Sanosuke waved with the hand not occupied with a dangling six-year-ld.

"Oi, Jou-chan! Looks like you didn't cook tonight."

"As a matter of fact, I didn't, but you don't have to look so happy about it,' Kaoru grumbled, tossing her hair back and releasing her hold on her bokken. It seemed that Kenshin's absence made her more nervous than she cared to admit.

"Hey, Uncle Sano! Guess what?"

"What, kid?"

"Yahiko and I picked some flowers for Kaasan. Did you bring any flowers?"

"Um, nope. Sorry about that." Sano shrugged his shoulders, then turned to look at Yahiko and mouthed the word, "Flowers?"

Yahiko shrugged and circumspectly edged his rice bowl closer. Sano chopsticks had a tendency to wander, after all and Yahiko already had to guard anything sweet from Kenji. Which usually resulted in losing most, if not all of the sweet dish as Yahiko did not find a match of wills, or chopsticks, with a six-year-old to be an honorable battle.

"I thought you were in China," Kaoru commented with deceptive mildness, as she resettled Kenji and pointedly stuck his chopsticks in his hand. Kenji took the hint and turned back to his dinner.

"I was," Sano said, in a careful tone as he looked very pointedly at Kenji. "I'm not there now, and I'm very hungry. Got anything left for an old friend?"

Kaoru sighed. At least he was more polite about mooching than he used to be. "I'm sure we do," she said and deftly took some off her own bowl and Yahiko's, despite his protest. "If I'd have know you were coming, I would have gotten more."

"I could go get the rice I made earlier," Kaoru offered cheerfully, moving to get to her feet. "And cooking the vegetables I cut before Yahiko came home won't take long."

Sano blanched at the offer and scrambled to push her back into her cushion. "No! Ah, I mean ... won't be necessary, Kaoru. I've been on a boat most of today and that's cut down my appetite, y'know? This'll be plenty. Don't go to any trouble! So ... um ... where's Kenshin?"

At the question, Kaoru rose to her feet completely and walked over to stand by the door where Sano had just entered, unconsciously looking down the road for her absent husband.

"He's making his yearly trip to Kyoto," Yahiko said, "but we expected him home…. Well, quite a while ago."

Sano frowned. "Not like him to just wander off and not tell anyone where he was going."

"It's exactly like him to do that," Kaoru countered sullenly. "And he told us where he was going, he just didn't tell us when he was coming back. Misao sent a note last week saying he would be back three days ago."

Sano scratched thoughtfully at the shaggy hairs running up the back of his neck. "I'll check around with a few people and see what I can dig up. Haven't been in Tokyo for a while, but maybe someone's heard something. Kenshin's not exactly subtle."

"No, he's not," Kaoru agreed. "I'd really appreciate that, Sano. I don't know what to do. I want to punch something, or someone. I probably have got nothing to be angry about, but it's very frustrating not knowing where he is… how he is."

Sano made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and turned to look at Yahiko. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Has she been okay?"

Yahiko shrugged. "She's got Kenji to take care of. Honestly, at this point, we're all worried. Kenshin doesn't mean to get in trouble, it's just that sometimes, situations draw him in. Especially of the dangerous variety."

"Or the just plain weird variety," Sano added. "I'll see what I can find. Someone should probably tell the weasel what's going on just in case."

"In case what?" Yahiko demanded, keeping his voice low. Kaoru, mercifully, was distracted by Kenji who had decided to wear his rice bowl, even though it was still half full of rice, and was not paying attention to the sotto-voce conversation going on at the other side of the table.

"In case she knows something we don't. Maybe she could get some of her people on this, I don't know. I've got a bad feeling about this, Yahiko. As soon as I got off the boat to head here, an owl followed me for an entire night."

Yahiko raised his eyebrows. "An entire night? Maybe you're right…"

"Hey, what are you two talking about over there?" Kaoru called.

She had succeeded in coaxing the bowl away from Kenji before he added daikon decorations to go with the rice that had been in his bowl, but that did nothing for the whitish clumps clinging to his auburn hair.

"Um ... maybe you should get Kenji-chan cleaned up first, ne Kaoru?" Yahiko ventured. "Need help?"

Kaoru pulled Kenji into her arms and sighed. "I know a dodge when I hear one, Yahiko."

"I freely admit it," Yahiko said with a grin. "Come on, Kenji-chan, let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

"Bath time!" The child shouted with delight.

"Yes indeed. Doesn't take after his father at all, does he, Jou-chan?" The teasing tone of Sano caused Kaoru to unconsciously relax. This, at least, was familiar territory.

"In more surprising ways than one," she returned cryptically. "So, what are you doing here, Sano?"

Sano shrugged casually as he picked a fishbone out of the remains of dinner. "Like I said, I was kinda hungry..."

* * *

**LadyChi's Author Note: **Okay, I've got a lot to say about this fic, so I'll have to pace myself. First, and most importantly, any and all Japanese-type mistakes are mine, but blame them on Kat, 'cause she was supposed to catch 'em. Special thanks to Emy, who did an amazing beta job, and Shinou, who read this fic several times through and reassured us countless times that it didn't suck. If she lied, be sure to blame her. Oh, and one last and final thing... Never have a conversation with Kat about how much you hate Seishousen... that particular discussion leads to very unexpected experience... but a nice one. Thanks for reading!

**Kat's Author's Note: **Echo'ing Chi here with a huge thank you, and plates of cybercookies to Shinou and Emerald Dragon (aka Emy). _However_, don't believe her on the fic being my fault. It wasn't. I'm pretty sure she helped, and gets to share the blame here. .:grins:. What really happened is that we discussed it, I posed an alternative, and then she insisted that we write it. It was going to be a short fic anyway and wouldn't take much time. Never believe your muses when they say that.


	2. In Which Sano Learns

**Chapter Two: In Which Sano Learns That Raccoons Are Worthy Opponents Too**

The sun shone brightly. In the air, the smell of cherry blossoms. Birds sang in the trees, and a gentle breeze drifted through the window. _God, do I hate mornings._

He rolled over with a groan and blinked his eyes; once, twice… then let them drift shut on the third. _There was something I was supposed to do today. The dojo… Kaoru… Kenshin… Shit _

The sound of strikes being called in the training hall echoed through the thin walls, a sure sign that Yahiko and Kaoru were already awake. And, from the sounds of it, working off some of their nervous energy pounding each other into the ground. Sano caught a low yelp and rolled his eyes. _Or, just Jou-chan pounding the kid into the ground._ Part of him wondered how Yahiko had been stupid enough to pick up a bokken around the worried shihondai.

"Probably deserves everything he gets," he muttered bad-temperedly to himself. "You going to be stupid enough to pick up a stick around a pissed-off Jou-chan, you deserve every hit." Still, he worked up enough energy to sit completely up.

Sano scratched at his hair and debated how he'd go looking for Kenshin. His usual contacts would be more available in the late evening, so he'd normally just wait until then, and maybe score a meal or three between now and then – except that Sano figured that none of the local thugs would be much help. They would probably just take advantage of Kenshin's absence. Which, from the sounds still ringing through the dojo, would probably just mean 'give Jou-chan and Yahiko animated practice dummies'."

On a whim, he headed out to the practice room and watched the sparring.

Sano pushed door aside and let himself into the high-ceilinged room Kaoru and Yahiko, and occasionally even Kenshin, used for practice. Rarely, in Kenshin's case, since he was downright shy about letting anyone see him practice and generally needed a taller ceiling anyway.

The two combatants stood in the center of the floor, with their pint-sized peanut gallery watching silently from the sidelines. Eerily silent for a six-year-old, Sano thought. Kenji's indigo eyes followed them with bright intelligence and a goofy little smile coupled with a wave when he spotted Sano's entrance across the room. _Kid's Kenshin's all right._ Plenty his mother's son too.

Sanosuke was amazed, actually, how good Kaoru really was. Her forms were nearly perfect – it was just her speed that was lacking and her tendency to let her emotions influence her strategy that was holding her back. What she needed was a challenge –a master significantly better than her. But perhaps, she'd settle for a challenge from someone, who, while he could never compare to Kenshin, still ranked high in Japan among the top fighters. That would be Sanosuke himself.

Sano snorted as Yahiko came flying at him and crashed into the wall.

Sanosuke twisted slightly so he was more or less looking at the sprawled samurai right-side up. "Having fun?"

"Oodles," Yahiko said. "Excuse me. I've got to hit her back." "Be my guest," Sano muttered, easing back against the wall next to Kenji.

Pushing himself up, Yahiko grunted, set himself in position and ran at Kaoru. When she moved to counter, Yahiko abruptly changed direction, hitting her from the other side with a less-than-gentle crack. Sano winced as Kaoru fell sideways, making contact with the floor with an audible thump.

"Kaasan needs speed," Kenji said. "In her wrists, in particular."

Sano raised his eyebrows. "Sharp observation, kid."

Kenji turned to him and smiled a disturbingly familiar smile… one he'd seen often Kenshin use to distract from his obvious intelligence.

Sano let out a slow breath and ruffled Kenji's hair. Kenji leaned into the touch with a cheerful smile before hopping to his feet and waving to get attention. "Kaasan It's Sano-nii's turn "

"What?" Sano whispered furiously to the boy he considered his nephew. "Listen, kid, I don't know if you know this, but if I kick your kaasan's…" he searched for the right word, "…butt, your father will kill me. No questions asked."

Kenji smiled mysteriously. "I don't think you have to worry about that, Sano-nii."

Sano pushed himself to his feet and looked quizzically at Kaoru. "Well, you don't get stronger fighting people who are weaker than you all the time," Sano shrugged, ignoring Yahiko's angered yelp of indignation. The younger man promptly found Kenji attached to his hakama leg and dragging him off. Kaoru coughed to cover her laughter as Yahiko allowed himself to be herded.

Sano grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Ready?"

Kaoru glowed at the unexpected contest. "Are you sure?" she said carefully, trying to give him a chance to back out should he wish to.

Sano smirked, "Well, Kenshin wouldn't like this... but you don't know what I'm capable of anymore, and I don't have a much better idea of your skills."

Kaoru's jewel-bright eyes dimmed slightly, and the tip of her bokken planted itself in the wooden floor as she pinned him with a grave look that still had the excitement of a warrior meeting a worthy challenge glittering in the background. "This isn't for Kenshin, Sano," she told him. "It's for me. Don't hold back."

"Wouldn't dare," Sano grinned. "Are you going to come after me, Jou-chan, or are we going to talk all morning?"

Kaoru nodded. "Hai." Then, without warning, she leapt into the air and landed just in front of Sano, swiping at him with her bokken. Grunting, Sano bent over backward to avoid the swipe. Balancing on two arms and one leg, he swept out his right foot in a powerful kick. Kaoru jumped and easily avoided his leg. "Nice," Sano said, jumping up to his feet. "Warm-up's done. Here comes the fun."

The air fairly hummed between them and Kaoru did not, or could not, stop the elation bubbling through her veins. She had not even realized how much she had missed this. True, the match with Sano was a far cry from any with her father, but the same feel of pushing the outer walls of her abilities against someone that had reach and strength beyond hers was a familiar and well-missed exhilaration. For the first time in recent memory, Kaoru found herself pulling out all the stops.

Sano felt the answering rush of adrenaline flow through his body. He knew Kaoru was no match for him, that the fight would probably end quickly, but the excitement in her eyes raised his awareness and focused his attention. They were both intent on what was about to happen. Slowly, they both began to circle around each other, testing footwork, balance, calmness. It was Sanosuke who was ready to attack first.

He threw himself at Kaoru, intent on catching the "blade" of her weapon and wrenching it out of her hands. Kaoru laughed brightly and ducked under Sano's reach to smack him from behind. She threw him off balance, but Sano twisted to recover and came up into a defensive crouch. His fist hovered for a breath above the polished wood of the floor, but a death-edged glare from Kaoru brought him up short. She had clearly heard descriptions of the techniques Sano had learned from the fallen monk, Anji, and her face and stance promised swift death if he ripped up her floor trying any of them.

Shrugging his shoulders almost imperceptibly at such limits, Sano took advantage of her momentary distraction and punched his left fist out. When Kaoru dodged, he simply used the momentum to carry him through a forward roll up to his feet. As soon as he was upright, Kaoru began a series of attacks toward the middle part of his body. Combining her bokken and the speed that was so vital to survival, she attacked his waist. Focusing all his attention on blocking the blows from her bokken, Sano nearly missed the blow to his groin from her elbow, catching at the last minute and letting out a surprised "woof" of air.

"Dirty move, Jou-chan " he accused. She grinned in response and sliced at his head in a powerful overhand strike. With a katana, it would have been a killing stroke; with a bokken it would only have given him a hell of a headache. Sano dived at Kaoru instead, taking her strike across his right shoulder and tackling her around the waist.

Grinning and panting a bit, Sano teasingly held his hand about her throat. "I think I won."

Feeling the sweat pour down her forehead, Kaoru flashed him a brilliant smile. "I think so too, but it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be, was it?"

Sano shrugged. "Guilty. It's just that I've never seen you fight, Jou-chan."

"Yes well, I'd love to reminisce about all I could have done in the past, but at the moment, I'd just love to get your weight off me, if you don't mind."

Sano laughed and then rolled over to one side, panting and studying the ceiling. "Good match."

"Thanks, Sano," Kaoru nodded, looking more energized than any of them had seen in a long while as she rolled back to her feet. "Didn't you have something planned for today?"

"Eh?" Sano pulled his lanky self up more slowly, and stretched. "Oh, right. Right after breakfast, anyway."

Still reeling from the whiplash of the unexpected difficulty in fighting Kaoru, Sano nearly jumped to find Yahiko standing right in front of him. He didn't remember it being that easy to sneak up on him. "Hey, kid. You've gotten better."

Yahiko laughed. "Don't sound so surprised. I've been working on my technique for years, remember? I've been doing some thinking."

"Don't say things like that. You'll scare those of us who know and love you best."

Yahiko's face darkened and he moved to lunge at the streetfighter when that Kaoru's voice called him up short. "Later, you two. I have a class coming this afternoon and Yahiko gets to sweep the training hall before then." She bent down to take Kenji's hand and slung her bokken over the opposite shoulder.

"Sano-nii " Kenji's high-pitched reed-like voice pierced the air enough that everyone stopped moving for a moment. Those sharp blue eyes, one of the only features he'd inherited from his mother, pierced Sano's briefly and then softened to those of a child with tears hovering on the edge. "You're going to look for Tou-san, ne?"

"Sure, kid. Right now."

Kenji's face lit for a moment and he returned his hand to his mother's keeping as he waved goodbye.

"Sometimes that kid is just a little creepy, you know?"

Yahiko nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Kenshin, Sano decided, was annoyingly hard to track for someone with an infamous reputation. Especially one that stuck out like a copper coin in a mound of poppy seeds Not that he hadn't found anything, he had just managed to confirm that Kenshin had left Kyoto on foot almost two weeks before, and had not been seen since.

The problem now was where to go from here. He'd spoken to merchants that had been on the road during that stretch of time, and no one had seen him. It was almost as if Kenshin had fallen off the edge of the Earth and then kept walking. Sano felt like he'd used all his contacts…. If no one had seen him alive, then Kenshin must be delayed. If not permanently, then seriously. Kaoru would not take this turn of events very well.

Actually, Sano was pretty sure Kaoru would be doing bodily harm to _someone_ over it. He would just have to make sure that he was holding Kenji at the time.

Arriving at the dojo door, Sano pushed his way in and towards the kitchen. "Kaoru, Yahiko, Kenji-chan, you here?"

"Hai " A trio of voices called out. Sure enough, they were all there, Yahiko standing over a pot and looking very serious.

"Did you find anything?" Kaoru asked anxiously, though she could tell by the look on his face what the answer would be.

"He's completely vanished," Sano admitted. "I mean, some of the merchants saw him leave, just like Misao said, but no one's seen him since."

"So, what can we do?" Yahiko asked, ignoring the part of the meal he was watching in favor of frowning at Sano.

"Well," Sano scratched at the back of his head. "I'll head for Kyoto in the morning. Haven't been here long enough to set down roots anyway. Maybe I'll find him on the way. If I don't, we'll need the ninjas' help, so we might as well alert them."

"You're going after him?" Yahiko raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"Oi, why not? Who else is going to?" Sano demanded.

"Sano, you got lost _last_ time you took off for Kyoto on your own," Kaoru pointed out dryly.

"That was different " Sano sputtered indignantly, and was met by two sets of silently raised eyebrows. Kenji looked between his mother and Yahiko before turning to Sano are raising his eyebrows too.

Sano folded his arms and hunched a bit. "Well, I know my way this time." Pointed silence answered him and Sano found his embarrassment quickly becoming irritation. "Dammit, Jou-chan, it's not like you can just come with me to make sure I ask for directions!"

Kaoru's eyes lit up and Sano could almost _see_ the wheels turning in her mind. "No Kaoru, if you come with me and something happens to you, Kenshin will kill me. It'd be faster if I just go by myself "

Kaoru's eyes flashed dangerously. "Listen here, Sanosuke. This is the second time we've had to chase Kenshin to Kyoto, and last time we brought him home almost in pieces. And it was a _month_ before we could even do that I can't stand waiting here for one minute more Do you understand me?"

Sano gulped. "Hai."

"Yahiko, start packing. You and Kenji are coming too."

The young man's face drained. "What?"

"I can't trust you here alone at the dojo with Tsubame just down the road. "We're going to _celebrate_ your wedding, Yahiko. Not just come home to you married."

"Kaoru!"

"And Jou-chan doesn't trust you," Sano smirked. "I don't trust the situation," Kaoru corrected primly, while foiling Kenji's plan to spear his fish with a chopstick. "But, it's settled. To Kyoto we go. Everyone be ready to leave bright and early tomorrow morning. We'll ask Shinou-sensei to look after the dojo and pick up our classes for a few weeks. If we find Kenshin, no... _when_ we find Kenshin, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind for causing me all this trouble..."

"Don't worry, Kaoru. We'll find him so you can hit him over the head," Yahiko said, his teasing tone at odds with the gentle look in his eye as he patted her on the shoulder and walked out the door.

* * *

**LadyChi's Note:** Thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially the folks over at the LJ community Triumvirata. It's always gratifying to know that you're not alone in the world in hating the OVA characterizations. Thanks to Emy, who beta-read this and did a fabulous job, and also a shot out to Shinou-chan, who is actually a girl, but makes a cameo here as an old dude. Thanks for all your hard work keeping us going... and for the fanart (which you can check out at her deviant page: http/shinou. Believe me, we appreciate all you do. Thanks also to Kat, my brilliant coauthor, who holds in her pinkie finger more knowledge about Japan and Japanese culture than I will know in my entire life. We're having too much fun doing this, y'all, so thanks for liking it and encouraging us to keep going. It means the world. Until next time. 

**Kat's Note:** Next time, by the way, will be next week sometime. And ... yeah, I'm normally talkative, but don't have much to say this time round that wouldn't be just echoing Chi. Definite thanks to Shinou and Emy. And to Chi, who is the one that twaks my nerotic tail into gear so we _write_ instead of obsessing over details. She's the dynamo that gets the stuff written. Otherwise, thanks for reading. We've been pleasantly surprised by the reaction so far!


	3. The Wanderer

**Chapter Three: The Wanderer**

"Why are we doing this again?" Yahiko asked, dancing around a bit as he tried to kick a rock out of his rope sandal. The road they walked was paved, but worn at the edges where they frequently had to veer, along with the rest of the foot traffic, to avoid trundling carts and carriages that sped along the middle. The wearing resulted in a liberal spread of stones that worked themselves into footwear.

"Because Sano needs a keeper," Kaoru called back over her shoulder, and Kenji's knee where he perched on her shoulders.

"Sano-nii gets lost easily," Kenji said with a laugh, tapping his hands on the top of Kaoru's head.

"Yeah, and we can't trust you to keep your hands to yourself around Tsubame, so we couldn't leave you at home," Sano teased, bending down to pick up a blade of grass.

"You look like a cow," Yahiko muttered bad-temperedly as Sano munched on the blade

Sano shrugged easily. "Moo. Yahiko has a point, though. It's not like we can drag you and Kenji into teahouses to see if anyone's seen Kenshin, Jou-chan."

"Kenshin had better hope that's not where we find him, Sano," Kaoru pointed out.

"Kenshin himself? Nah, we probably won't," Sano said, thoughtfully chewing his grass. "But all the best gossip comes through teahouses. If the merchants and professional snitches don't know it, then most of the time the girls will."

Yahiko tried to look worldly, but was failing miserably. "I definitely think we should check that option out."

Kaoru shot him a dark look of disapproval. "Sano, you should not be taking Yahiko into such places!"

Sano shrugged. "Kid's got to grow up sometime, Kaoru. In fact, he already has."

"I like tea!" Kenji shouted, ruining the tension of the moment.

Kaoru pinned both of the men with a matronly glare, promising swift dismemberment and great unpleasantness. "No teahouses, Sano."

"Right, we'll probably ... run into Kenshin before that, ne? We know what route he's supposed to be taking to get home an all."

"Um ... guys?" Yahiko interrupted while coming to a halt in the middle of the path. The chatter and noise from the main road had decreased in the stretch of minutes they had been walking and the road itself had faded into more of a cobbled path. "I hate to ask, but ... where are we?"

"Great," Sano muttered. "Even when you guys come along, I get lost."

Yahiko looked around. "Okay, so we just turn around and go back the way we came. Maybe we'll run into someone who actually knows where they're going."

Kenji hummed happily, the only one seemingly unfazed by this turn of events. "Kaasan, when do we eat?"

"As soon as we've covered a bit more distance," Kaoru answered, frowning at their surroundings. "At least we told Misao to expect us, and left a note if Kenshin somehow makes it home. If we're really lost, someone will come looking for us eventually."

Yahiko shook his head. "Yeah, Weasel's going to love sending out a bunch of ninjas because we all got lost between Tokyo and Kyoto!"

"Tou-san'll find us first," Kenji said with all the confidence of a six-year-old. "I want down now, Kaasan."

"Okay." With a sigh of relief, she set the child down and stretched out her weary back muscles. "If we're going to have to backtrack, we might as well start now."

"Kamiya Kaoru?"

At the sound of her maiden name, Kaoru turned her head. "Himura Kaoru, if you please," she said automatically, searching for the source of the voice.

"Very silly of you to go wandering when attempting to find your hapless husband," the unknown voice drawled.

"Yes, well. I wasn't planning on doing any wandering. Sometimes things just happen that way ... Seta-san."

A slight figure separated from the tree-shadows, the shabby, faded blue of his gi and the patched greys of his hakama brightening slightly as he stepped into the light and approached them. The mended tears and worn patches spattering his clothing spoke of long wear on sturdy cloth. Yet still, Seta Soujiro smiled at them as pleasantly as the lilting cadence of his voice sounded. "My apologies, Kaoru-san. You do seem to be quite lost, though."

"We're fine," Sano grunted, eyeing the former lieutenant of the Juppongatana distrustfully. "This is a shortcut."

Soujiro's smile never wavered as he pointed out, "But, Sagara-san, you are going north."

"And?"

"Kyoto is south and west."

As Sanosuke turned brighter and brighter shades of red, Kaoru turned her attention to their new companion. "What do you intend to do about it?"

"I was hoping to point you in the right direction, perhaps even walk part of the way with you," Soujiro explained with a smile. "It does no one in Japan any good to have you all lost on the road."

Yahiko stepped forward, almost unconsciously placing himself between Soujiro and Kaoru. "How did you know where to find us? Have you heard from Kenshin?"

"Maa, maa, Myougin-san. I've been in the north, so I'm afraid not." Soujiro shook his head.

"Then how did you know Kenshin was missing?" Sano demanded. "Or that we ... aren't on the main path right now.

"I didn't!" the wanderer responded brightly. "Thank you for confirming my guess, though. As for knowing who you were ... that was also a guess. I was only sure who your child was, Kaoru-san and I was ... concerned when I saw that Himura-san himself was not with you."

"Kaa-san, Kaa-san!" The gentle tugging on her hand had Kaoru looking down. "Does this man know Tou-san?"

Kaoru shrugged a bit helplessly, uncertain of how to explain the situation.

"Forgive me, young Himura-san, for not introducing myself earlier. I am Seta Soujiro. I have known your father for years, although we were by no means close. A very wise man, your father."

Kenji studied the wanderer a moment, and then nodded. Anyone who shared his good opinion of his father was worth trusting, at least for the moment. "I am Himura Kenji. It is nice to meet you."

Leaves rustled further down the shaded path and Soujiro turned, beckoning the others to follow. "We should go," he said. "There is a better place for resting further along the road."

"Not so fast there, Seta-san," Sanosuke called, half-jogging to catch up with the fast-moving ronin. "What's so important that we have to move right away?"

"It is best to move now, and ask questions later. We must move quickly."

Kaoru felt her heart begin to pound and gripped Kenji's hand a little tighter and began to walk faster. "Kaoru-san, you must allow one of us to carry the child," Soujiro demanded.

Kenji watched the shabby man for a moment before silently going to Yahiko and holding his arms out to be carried. Yahiko adjusted the bokken he had strapped to his back and scooped Kenji up to perch on his shoulders. "Giving your mom a rest, huh, Kenji?" Yahiko asked, grinning up at his little brother and jogging to catch up with the other four.

"Kaa-san needs her hands free."

"Huh?" Just as Yahiko started to work that through, the rustling grew more pronounced. As the group cautiously halted, they could hear a group of people talking amongst themselves.

"Easy prey," one voice said, while another suggested, "let's split up. I wanna take the hot mama. She could punish me any day." Still another, "I've got the kid with the kid. Two for one."

"Great," Sano muttered. "We're about to be attacked by idiots."

A beatific smile blossomed across Soujiro's face as he stilled and faced the insulting rustles. "Yes, I believe we are."

"And he's gone all smiley on us," Sano muttered, flexing his hands and stepping up to take Kaoru's back. "Great."

"Smiley is bad?" Kaoru asked, pulling her bokken off her back and watching Soujiro flick his sword out of its saya with his left thumb. An inch of gleaming metal appeared and Soujiro tapped his foot once.

Sano chuckled once, a harsh sound. "Fortunately, not for us this time. Too bad this won't take longer. I could use a good workout."

Yahiko pulled his bokken out. "Kenji, I need you to climb on my back, okay? Put your arms around my neck and wrap your legs around my tummy. I need both my hands. Yell if you're about to fall off, okay?"

"Hai, Yahiko-nii. I will try to stay out of your way."

Yahiko laughed. "Thanks, Kenji-chan. With any kind of luck, you won't have to for long."

"Come on out, you cowards!" Sano shouted with bravado. "We're all ready for you!"

Silence stretched out for long moments as they waited. Even the suspicious rustling had stopped. "I think you scared them, Sano." Yahiko said, lowering his bokken, though Kenji remained clinging to his back like a koala.

Soujiro's smile did not fade, but he relaxed enough to resheath his sakabatou. "Then let us go. I, for one, am about ready for dinner."

At that moment, Sano's stomach growled and Kenji and Kaoru broke into giggles. "I think we can safely say that we all agree on that," Kaoru said, returning her bokken to its position on her back.

Kenji used one of his pudgy hands to tap Yahiko on the shoulder. "Yahiko-nii, I would very much like to get down now."

"Okay, Kenji-chan. Just a second."

"It's an emergency, Yahiko-nii."

"What?" Yahiko was genuinely confused.

"An emergency!" Kaoru, Sano and Soujiro shouted at once. "Yahiko, you'd best let him down or you'll get wet," Kaoru said, and began to laugh.

"What? Oh yeah. Yikes. Here you go, Kenji-chan," Yahiko said, quickly setting Kenji on the ground.

Kenji straightened his clothes where they had rumpled from being tossed up and down Yahiko's shoulders before hurrying for a large-trunked tree.

"Not out of sight, Kenji!" Kaoru called after him while Yahiko scurried to catch up.

"Kaa-san!" Kenji looked back over his shoulder, plainly horrified, and was met with an implacable glare. He looked at her pleadingly for a few seconds, while unsubtly shifting his weight from side to side, before his shoulders slumped and he renewed his dash for the tree.

"He did inherit the most... interesting traits from you and Himura Kenshin, Kaoru-san," Soujiro said, watching with bemusement as the young boy lost his battle with Yahiko for privacy.

"I like to think that he inherited the best of both of us, Seta-san," Kaoru answered discreetly.

"There is one trait in particular that is very like his father's. Your son is a very astute observer."

As Soujiro fixed his now life-filled eyes on her, Kaoru couldn't help the feeling that she was not on even ground with this ronin. "Yes," she agreed carefully.

"Good," Soujiro said, and then abruptly turned his head. "I have a feeling it will serve him, and you, very well."

Kenji chose that moment to return, still looking slightly sulky and red-cheeked about the ordeal, and pointedly took up a spot beside Soujiro. The wanderer blinked, his smile faltered and gave way to surprise as he looked from the child standing beside him to Kaoru who was rolling her eyes and motioning him to just continue walking.

"Kaoru-san ..." Soujiro said, even as he complied with her unspoken order and started down the narrow road again.

"Seta-san, good qualities were not the only thing Kenji-chan inherited."

"She means the kid's stubborn as a rock," Sano snickered. "Just keep going, Seta."

"We are, thankfully, almost there," Soujiro replied, and reached down to take Kenji's hand in his. They traveled as the sunlight lengthened and finally warmed into the golden tones of evening and finally reached their destination with a few scant hours of daylight left.

A small creek of fresh water ran through the trees with a low hill rising beside it in one area. Soujiro's actual destination was a dilapidated shack of a house that had been built into the side of the hill.

"Looks great, Seta-san," Kaoru said, honest appreciation in her voice and a hint of exhaustion on her face.

"I'm starved," Yahiko announced. "Can we eat first?"

Kaoru looked around the group and laughed. "Not only can we, we will. Everyone up for some food?"

The resounding "Hai!" that came from the group immediately made everyone burst into laughter, except for Soujiro, who contented himself with a half-smile. That was the way they ended their first day on the road to Kyoto: tired and laughing.

**Kat's Note:** We don't have much to say this chapter. But wanted to say thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far. Such beautiful reviews! And they do mean a lot to us. Motivation, for one thing! Anyway. Until next week!


	4. Sunrise, Sunset

**Chapter 4: Sunrise, Sunset**

By the time night fell, the group had settled into something resembling comfort in the dilapidated shack. A small brazier in the center of the room glowed, casting enough light to fumble by. The "floor" was just packed down earth, and a stack of worn tatami mats Soujiro had hauled out of a corner. Blankets appeared from the small bundles of supplies most of them had been carrying, and everyone quickly located a place to sleep. Soujiro had opted to sleep upright in a corner with his sakabatou resting against his shoulder, where, Kaoru couldn't help but notice, he could watch the door all night.

Kenji regarded Soujiro for a few moments before he climbed to his feet and awkwardly gathered his blanket into his arms and padded over to where the ronin sat. Without a word, the tiny boy set to tucking his blanket around Soujiro's shoulders. When the blanket was settled to Kenji's satisfaction he gave Soujiro a sleepy sort of smile before turning away and slipping in next to his mother. Kaoru unconsciously wrapped her arms around her son as he stole a third of the blanket and cuddled into her until all that was visible was a thatch of red hair.

Soujiro blinked. He'd not jumped, afraid he would startle the child with any unexpected contact. It had been a very long time since anyone had offered him a touch with any kind of affection in it, and for it to be the child of a man he had once tried very valiantly to kill... He shook his head and studied Kenji's carefully tucked in blanket for a moment. Deciding at once he would return the gift, he moved to get on his feet, until the sound of Kaoru's voice stopped him. "We're fine..."

"Kaoru-san, I..."

"Shhh. Don't talk so loud or you'll wake him, and then we'll have to settle him down again. I don't want to have to chase him off this roof, because I have a feeling it's about as sturdy as it looks."

Soujiro sighed and relaxed against the rough planks of the wall. "As you ask, Kaoru-san."

The quiet night was interrupted only by the occasional pop of smoldering wood for a long time, leaving everyone to their own musings or pre-sleep rituals until Kaoru hesitantly broke the silence. "Soujiro-san? The men in the forest ..." Everyone's attention turned to her, and she could just make out the subdued glitter of eyes and the shadows of movement where the firelight reflected. "How much trouble are they likely to be?"

"They sounded like regular bandits to me," Sano said, levering himself up on one elbow.

"Oh, they're not bandits," Soujiro shook his head. "Not cutpurses, anyway. They're slavers. And after the week I've had, I just hoped you were not kidnaping Himura-chan when I first saw you."

"Oi, you thought we were _kidnaping_ Kenji?" Yahiko demanded, managing to sound indignant and keep his voice low at the same time.

"It seemed like a logical idea at the time. The traders would be very interested in a little boy like Kenji. He's unique, and small for his age. Given the right kind of..." Soujiro hesitated, "...marketing, the boy could fetch a very high price. With hair like that, I knew he could only be the child of Himura Kenshin."

Sano made a sound of agreement. "He's a pretty distinct little kid."

"I thank you for your honorable intentions," Kaoru said. "It's nice to know you would have done something if someone had taken Kenji."

Soujiro laughed, a mirthless sound. "I would be more concerned about the traders themselves. I have no doubt little Kenji has a large supply of protectors aside from his father, who would kill to retrieve him. If the peons are dead, I cannot get to the masters, and it is, as always, the masters who interest me." After a moment an almost cheerful smile stretched across the ronin's face, but never reached his eyes. "Besides, better what I do to them than what Himura-san or Aoshi-san would do to them."

Worry tinged Kaoru's eyes at the mention of her missing husband, and she pulled Kenji closer with one arm. Sano grunted and pulled himself to his feet. "I'll take first watch. Wouldn't want those bastards lurking around here sneaking up on us." Sano grunted and pulled himself to his feet. "I'll take first watch. Wouldn't want those bastards lurking around here sneaking up on us."

"Wake me in two hours and I will take the next watch," Soujiro called quietly. Sano nodded once and disappeared out the doorway, leaving the others to sleep.

As night slowly gave way to dawn, and Sano and Soujiro exchanged watches (once even Yahiko took a shift), Kaoru felt herself awakening with the first warm ray of daytime sun. Pushing through the fog of sleep, she first looked down to check on...

"Kenji?" There was no child next to her. Frantic, Kaoru sat up and looked around the shack. "Kenji?"

From where he slept by the window, Sano groaned a protest. "Too early, Kaoru. Tell him to go back to bed."

"I don't see him, Sano!" Kaoru couldn't keep the note of panic out of her voice.

"Good morning, Kaasan!" Kenji's cheerful voice rang out as he stepped in the shack, one hand firmly in Soujiro's.

At the astonished look on everyone's face, Soujiro shrugged. "It was an emergency."

Kenji abandoned Soujiro's hand to dash past the adrenaline-keyed Kaoru and treat Yahiko to a flying-tackle of a "good morning". Yahiko jolted awake with a strangled shout, mixed liberally with the chiming giggles of Kenji.

Soujiro watched the two wrestle across the floor out of the corner of his eye, Kenji shrieking with laughter when Yahiko gathered himself enough to attack back with a barrage of tickling with the small boy wiggling to try and escape. "Yahiko-nii!"

"I'm not stopping until you say 'uncle', I'm not!" Yahiko said, obviously used to this game. "Come on, Kenji-chan, admit defeat. All good warriors know when to take what you've learned and come back to fight another day, there's no shame in getting your butt kicked..."

Sano groaned and tried to cover his ears to block out the racket. "It's too early for that, you two!"

"Boys ..." Kaoru shook her head, stepping around the wrestling match to make her way over to the fire coals they had banked the night before and start coaxing them back into flame. It was one morning chore no one would protest to her doing, because it was the one chore that did not involve any way to accidentally poison anyone.

Yahiko immediately looked sheepish. "Sorry, Kaoru. I didn't mean to wake anyone up."

"It's fine," Sano muttered irritably. "Now I'm hungry. I'm awake and I'm hungry and it's morning... they should give me a medal for this."

"Why, Sano-nii?" Kenji asked as he rolled off of Yahiko to sit very seriously next to Sano.

"Because I haven't killed anyone yet, that's why," Sano mumbled and worked his way up to sitting.

Yahiko snorted and pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his shinai as he did. "Be back in a few minutes."

Soujiro silently knelt across the now-glowing fire from Kaoru and carefully ignored Kenji as the child's flame-bright head interposed itself curiously beside him. Sanosuke stretched out on his side, finding a stray beam of light that was making its way through the airy gaps in the ceiling.

By the time the scent of almost-done rice was filling the air, Yahiko swaggered in, with a pair of rabbits slung over his shoulder and a smug look on his face. He tossed one unceremoniously at Sano, nailing the taller man in the chest with it. "It'll go faster if you help me skin these, Sano."

"Where'd they come from?" Sano asked, dangling the thing from one hand and looking at it in confusion.

"I trapped them," Yahiko grinned. "Set the traps out before we turned in last night. It's not like there's an inn around here for us to get more food. So I figured we should probably stretch what we have."

"But how did _you_ learn to trap anything?" Kaoru gaped at her student. "You're as much a city-brat as I am!"

"The yakuza didn't always remember to feed me," Yahiko shrugged, sobering slightly. "At least rabbits are bigger than rats."

"Yick," Kenji said, and stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Even Kaasan's cooking would taste better than that."

Sano paled and unconsciously clinched his fist. "It's a good thing that Kenshin's already kicked the crap out of those guys, because I definitely wouldn't mind tracking them down again – you know, for old times sake."

Yahiko shrugged. "Well, you know. At least I can get breakfast, right?"

Soujiro watched this all from the sidelines, bemused and astonished. "What doesn't kill us in our youth," he found himself saying, "only serves to make us stronger in our maturity."

"Well, in this case, I think all of us would prefer a bit less strength," Kaoru said quietly, folding up the last of their blankets and stowing them in with their other supplies. "I'm going to wash up. Come on, Kenji-chan. You too." She held out a hand for Kenji to take.

Soujiro watched them go and looked pointedly at the street fighter.

"They'll be okay," Sano told him. "We can hear 'em from here and Kaoru's a better fighter than she lets on. Kenji also has really sharp teeth."

"And he climbs," Yahiko added from where he was engaged in his moderately messy task.

Soujiro carefully studied Yahiko's face, and then Sano's. When he found no trace of worry or concern on either face, he cleared his throat and walked over the table, grabbed a knife and started to help. "Climbs, eh?"

Sano laughed. "I never figured you were one for it, Seta-san."

"What?" Soujiro turned from his task to glare at the street fighter.

"You like him. I didn't know you liked kids."

"Children do not usually like me, Sagara-san," Soujiro corrected with forced mildness. "I barely remember being one myself. Himura-chan is a ... unique child. He seems to like everyone."

"Kenji-chan likes most everyone," Yahiko agreed. "Just like he likes to climb most anything. He's a very agreeable child."

"Imagine that," Sano muttered under his breath, just as Soujiro said, "surprisingly enough."

Kenji suddenly darted back inside, pursued by a laughing Kaoru until the two ended up in a slightly-damp heap on the pile of tatami mats. Righting herself, and setting Kenji back on his feet, Kaoru turned to Yahiko, who was spitting the rabbit meat on long skewers of bamboo. "So where are we heading next, oh great leader?"

Kaoru shook her loose hair out of her eyes and corralled her son between her hakama-clad legs so she could brush his hair free of tangles and tie it back while she answered with a question of her own. "Soujiro-san, how far are we from Kyoto?"

"Less than a week," Soujiro answered, reaching out to turn one of the spits where it sizzled over the fire. "And only an hour's walk from the main path that most travelers take. Himura-san, however, is not likely to take that path."

Kaoru ran a careful hand over her work to check its neatness for a moment before she turned again to Soujiro. "Why do you think that, Soujiro-san?"

"They're too many travelers on the road to Kyoto and back. Himura-san would not like to take any chances. In my experience, he usually goes out of his way to avoid trouble."

"It's too bad trouble can't extend him the same courtesy," Sano muttered, tying the last of his knots on his travel pack. "Hey, let's get going. I'm tired of sitting around here. New places to see, new people to meet. Just like old times."

"Sano, you've only been back a short time and you're already reminiscing?" Kaoru teased.

"That means he's old," Yahiko shot out, tongue in cheek as he slung his pack on his back.

"At least I don't continually get beat up by a girl, Yahiko-chan," Sano shot back cheerfully, claiming a rabbit skewer and a few onigiri from the stack Soujiro had made.

"Are you two ladies going to fight the whole trip?" Soujiro inquired with an innocent smile.

Kenji broke into hysterical laughter, and Kaoru worked hard to school her face into an expression of mild disapproval, but the twitch at her lip gave her away. "Kenji-chan, don't laugh at them, it only encourages them."

"Hai, Kaasan."

"Okay, is everyone all set?" Kaoru asked brightly.

"Kaasan?"

"What?"

"I gotta go. It's an emergency."

* * *

**Kat's Notes:** Flying solo on today's author's notes! Chi wants me to apologize for us taking a week off from posting. Not really intended. She had band camp, and we got nothing done. She's promised it won't happen again. Those responsible have been sacked. As well as a few innocent bystanders who were ... bystanding. And innocent. But they were sacked anyway.

Right. Moving along. We need to thank Emerald Dragon for beta'ing for us, and Shinou for being our pre-reader and peanut gallery. Love you, girls!


	5. The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Kenji

Chapter 5: The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Kenji

They waited along the side of the trail, for the _third time that morning_, after Kenji had declared an emergency.

"I think I was overly ambitious in how much longer our travel to Kyoto would be," Soujiro said, conversationally. "By a week."

"It's not Kenji's fault," Yahiko defended. "He's six! I'm just glad he finally sleeps through the night."

"Glad I wasn't around for most of that," Sano said, chewing on stick that had earlier held part of his breakfast.

Kaoru smiled and laughed. "Kenshin and I had the hardest time toilet training him, Sano…"

"Hey, hey, hey. I wasn't asking for information. I was making an observation," Sano protested, looking slightly ill at the reference to anything as domestic as potty training.

"Yare, yare," Soujiro muttered, mostly under his breath. "If there is anyone else along our path, they'll certainly hear us coming!"

"Kenji!" At Kaoru's shriek, Soujiro, Sano and Yahiko turned towards the tree Kenji had retreated behind to do his business. "You come down from there this instant."

"Sugoi…" Sano muttered under his breath. "Hey, Yahiko, look what the kid's doing with that stick. Does it remind you of the same thing it does me?"

Balanced precariously on a single limb, Kenji's small face was scrunched in an expression of concentration as he slowly moved from one form to another.

Yahiko slapped a hand over his eyes, torn somewhere between panic, awe, and exasperation as Kenji attacked the trunk of the tree with a surprisingly fast battou-jutsu. The six-year-old version of the powerful attack resulted in a bit of chipped bark, but little damage to the tree. "We have got to stop telling the kid old war stories."

"His father's style," Soujiro noted clinically, looking back to smile at the other two as Kenji went after the tree again with a two-handed overhead strike. "And ... one I haven't seen before."

"Kamiya Kasshin," Kaoru provided. "Though he's actually _seen_ Yahiko, me, and our students practicing."

"Are you suggesting he's never seen Hiten Mitsurgi Ryu?" At Kaoru's nod, Soujiro snorted. "Impossible. Even for a gifted child, it would be impossible to recreate Himura-san's style without seeing it." Kaoru's face went blank. "Oh, my…"

Just as soon as Kaoru realized it, Yahiko grasped the answer. "Kenshin takes Kenji with him when he uses the dojo space. He didn't think…."

"That his six-year-old would start picking things up?" Sano shook his head. "Damn. Kenshin never practices around any of _us_, but he will around Kenji?"

"Kenji's the only other one awake at that time of the morning," Kaoru grumbled, then sighed and grabbed the ex-gangster by the jacket-front to haul him closer to the tree. "Give me a boost, Sano."

Sano dropped to one knee to give her a foothold, and Kenji decided to abandon the tree. "R'tsu'sen!" was the only warning they got before a blur of red wielding a stick leapt, full force, heading for Sano.

Sano twisted and held his hands up to intercept the hurtling six-year-old. Kenji crashed into him with all the grace of a barrel of bricks. Sano rocked back, and grunted as Kenji flew forward and cracked his head against Sano's jaw. He managed to grab Kenji by the back of his gi just as the boy slumped into unconsciousness. "Damn it, kid. I didn't mean to knock you out."

"Good form," Yahiko muttered. "Not necessarily effective…"

"It would be hard to have the strength for that particular move to be effective when you're six," Soujiro muttered. "Kenji knew that. Otherwise he wouldn't have risked your life, Sagara-san."

"Risking my life will be telling Kenshin I knocked the squirt out," Sano said. "And what are you talking about? Kenji wouldn't kill anyone!"

"Not intentionally," Soujiro said quietly, with a dark weight to his words.

"Sano's right, Soujiro-san," Kaoru injected, pushing between the two before the annoyance in Sano's stance translated itself into taking a swing at the ronin. "Kenji will be fine, and he will not kill anyone, intentionally or no. Sano, you'll just have to carry him until he wakes up, and we won't mention it when we find Kenshin," Kaoru pushed Kenji against Sano's chest and started back down the road, fully expecting the others to follow her.

"What about Kenji?" Yahiko demanded, jogging to keep up with her.

"We'll discuss trees, Ryu Tsui Sens out of them, and attacking family members when he comes to," Kaoru said briskly.

"My greatest fear is that a talking-to will not be sufficient, Kaoru-san. He'll have to be trained."

"He will be. When he gets big enough, we'll teach him my style." Soujiro raised his eyebrows. "It appears that your Kenji-chan is already in the process of learning your style… and melding it with his father's. Kaoru-san, if you don't teach him… There's more to being a swordsman than technique. Someone has to instill in him the power of the technique he's creating."

"He's six!" Kaoru whispered fiercely.

"A very smart six," Yahiko muttered, keeping his eyes on the ground, not feeling it was his place to say anything.

"He can't go around attempting moves from Kenshin's technique without instruction, Kaoru," Sano said gently. "Sooner or later, no matter how you lecture, he will hurt someone."

Kaoru walked on in silence for several long moments before sighing and nodding her head in defeat. "All right. When we get to the next town, we'll stop long enough to find Kenji-chan a shinai. A very _small_ shinai. That will have better balance than a stick and I can start him on the basics when we stop for the night."

Kenji loved town. There was hustle and bustle. New sights, new sounds, new people, all moving at lightening speed with total disregard for anything but getting their business done. At the moment, his Kaasan was bargaining with a shop owner over a shinai. Rubbing his aching head, still pounding from the knock Sano had given him, Kenji found himself, in the manner of his father, well… wandering.

Although he was six years old, he was very small for his age, a fact that alternately pleased and irritated the young boy, depending on the situation and his ability to use his size to his advantage. At the moment, he was darting through crowds quickly. He knew he was fast, as even his "uncles" and "aunts", full-grown, highly-trained swordsmen had trouble catching him.

Not that they were trying to catch him right at that moment, or even paying more than passing attention to him. Kaa-chan was content so long as he was in sight. Sou-san had disappeared into the crowds with a quickly muttered apology almost as soon as they had arrived. Sano and Yahiko had been sent off by Kaasan and were busy talking to other grownups at the other end of the market street. And he was going to stay in sight, he told himself. The cart with the toys was in sight of the wood-worker's shop, and he would return in time enough that Kaasan would never notice he was gone.

The man at the cart was bent in the way of older people. His time-worn face was still kind as he smiled at the crowd of youngsters surrounding his cart. "Feel free to look, young ones," he said with a laugh. "Handmade these myself, might as well have them tried out before I sell 'em, hey?" When the children shouted with delight, he echoed them with a laugh of his own.

Kenji drew hesitantly closer to the man, standing on the tips of his toes as he tried to see over the heads of the other children. Making an irritated huff, he realized that being a small six year old was better for evading grownups than seeing over the shoulders of other children. He couldn't see anything! Kenji glanced over his shoulder to see where his mother was – still testing shinai in front of the wood-worker's shop – and then headed for a stack of barrels just behind the man holding the cart.

Studying his object for a moment, Kenji smiled and rubbed his hands together. Fortunately, though they were stacked four high, they were arranged in a manner that left him plenty of handgrips. From that height, he would be able to see the brightly painted toys, and maybe convince his Kaasan that he needed one to keep him entertained on the trip.

Jumping up, he landed on the flat edge of one barrel, then pulled himself up on the second one by bracing his forearms against the edge and lifting the rest of his body. The smoother surface of the barrel made climbing it slightly more difficult than climbing a tree, but he managed. Soon, he realized that he stood near the top of the stack. Just one more to go. As he pulled his weight on the top of the barrel, he had a sinking sensation, and felt the whole stack lean slightly to the left. His eyes widened, and before he could do anything more, the barrel tilted.

Kenji pulled back, trying to steady the barrel and it wobbled precariously before settling back on its base. With a grin of triumph at a disaster averted, he reached for the top of the final barrel again, careful to keep his balance this time. He reached and snagged the rough top with the edges of his fingers, then jumped to make the final wriggle, when the nearest shop door opened, swinging out to clip the other side of the barrel Kenji was half-dangling from.

He just had time for a startled "meep!" before the barrels toppled, the groaning clatter sending the children scattering with startled screeches, and the toy maker ducking behind his cart to avoid the briny fallout. Kenji clung instinctively to the one he had been perched on as it fell forward, launching him briefly into the air with an escort of flying eels.

Kenji was only in the air a few moments before he landed hard on the ground, covered in eels and seawater, next to a pair of warn boots. Kenji worked his way up to his knees and looked up, up and _up_ to the face of a very disgruntled looking man.

"Hmph," the man scolded, picking Kenji up by his gi and dangling him in midair while Kenji flailed about. "Hold still, moronic one, while I look to see if you've managed to acquire any injuries while on your quest to become Japan's youngest mountain climber."

"Oro?" Kenji blinked wide, astonished blue-violet eyes as he looked at the face of the being that held him. The man was enormous! With dark eyes and hair and strong features framed by a massive red-lined white mantle that covered his broad shoulders. Kenji could feel the stiff edges of leather pressing against his back where the man's hand fisted in his gi.

The man blinked. Once. Then twice. "Well, are you hurt?" At Kenji's frantic shaking head, Kenji's captor nodded. "Good." Kenji gave another twisting wiggle and yelped as the man dropped him unceremoniously on his feet. "Find your idiot father, little dragon." Kenji wrinkled his nose and stared up at the strange man. "Kenji," he corrected.

A mocking smile touched the man's lips. "Kenji, eh? Of course. Not a speck of originality. But that's to be expected."

"Kenji!" Kenji's attention snapped up at the sound of his mother's voice. She did not sound pleased. When he looked back, the man in the white cloak was gone, vanished into the crowd, or back into the shop he had come from.

"What happened to you?" Kaoru demanded, dropping to eye level with Kenji and brushing ineffectually at the splotches and foam covering his clothes. "Mou! You were supposed to stay close, not go swimming with eels!"

Sano appeared suddenly, slowly chewing a piece of grass. "Hey, kid. Looks like you took a dip, eh?" He sniffed, then grimaced. "In the sea."

Kenji opened his mouth. "Sano-nii, I…" From across the street, he saw the mysterious man hold a finger over his lips. "I fell," he finished lamely, for some reason feeling like he should obey the broad-shouldered man.

Something about the way the man who knew his father reminded Kenji of his father ... With the sudden emotion of a six-year-old, Kenji suddenly and very keenly missed him.

Instantly, Kaoru knew something was wrong, and she knelt in front of her son and saw his tears. "Where does it hurt, Kenji-chan? Show Kaasan, and she'll kiss it away."

Kenji jumped into his mother's arms and buried his head in her shoulder. "Kaasan," he whispered, "I miss Tou-san."

* * *


	6. The Cage of the Dragon

Chapter 6 - The Cage of the Dragon

"Kaoru-san," Soujiro plucked respectfully at her shoulder to draw her attention away from the quivering boy in her arms. "We should go. I may know where Himura-san is."

Kaoru's eyes widened in sudden hope and Kenji's head lifted in curiosity and she nodded for Soujiro to continue. "South of here, in the Gifu prefecture," Soujiro continued. "Our best bet will be the capital."

"Oi," Sano leaned closer with Yahiko peering around his shoulder. "Someone's seen Kenshin?"

Soujiro shook his head negatively. "No, Sagara-san. But the slavers I've been following are widespread and are being turned in to the authorities with many broken bones and concussions, but no deaths."

"No deaths but severe injuries," Sano mused. "I suppose that could be Kenshin, but that's not exactly enough evidence for me."

Soujiro raised an eyebrow and then schooled his expression to his cheerless smile. "It's more evidence than you have found, Sagara-san."

While Sano worked to find something to say, Yahiko spoke up to try and break the tension in the group. "Well, at least if it's Kenshin, we know he's still kept his vow."

Kaoru reached over and smacked the back of Yahiko's head. "He's missing, not insane."

"Kaoru, it wasn't that bad an idea," Sano said dryly. "We don't know why Kenshin hasn't come home. It had to be something extreme."

Kenji raised his head to look at his mother. "Tousan's in… Gisu?" He tested the word out. "How far is that?"

"Gifu, Kenji-chan," Kaoru corrected gently. "And it's a few more days over those mountains there." She pointed to the bluish peaks that were still capped with white snow before turning a glare on Sano. "Sano, extreme would be Kenshin spending two weeks playing rurouni hero and forgetting to send a note. Reverting back into Battousai would be catastrophic."

Kenji wrinkled his nose in distaste, and mumbled under his breath, "Tousan doesn't like that name."

"I do not think we have to worry about that, Kaoru-san. We would have heard if he had reverted to Battousai," Soujiro said.

"My point exactly," Kaoru said triumphantly.

"But if he has, as I suspect, reverted to rurouni…" Soujiro's voice trailed off. Sano met his eyes and nodded.

"Don't do that alpha male communicating without words…" Kaoru paused for a moment, then covered Kenji's ears, "…bullshit. Tell me what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking that we had better move quickly, Kaoru-san," Soujiro said gently.

"When did you stop training?" Soujiro asked quietly as he poked a green stick in the flames from the other side of their small campfire they shared. Kaoru looked up and tilted her head quizzically.

"Me?"

Soujiro nodded, his eyes remaining on the curling flames rather than returning her confused look. "Yes. You have trained in the past, but your stances look unfinished. When did you stop?"

"I ... I didn't. My father died before he completed my training, but I completed it myself," Kaoru admitted, and ran a soothing hand over Kenji's hair, who was sleeping with his head in her lap. "He wrote down most of what I needed to know and I created the rest."

"It had to be something you were passionate about." At Kaoru's quizzical look, Soujiro smiled and Kaoru could almost detect emotion in it. "I can see it in your eyes when you hold your bokken; in the way you teach Kenji."

After a long moment, Kaoru shrugged and looked down at her son. "I still am. Passionate about it, I mean. It meant so much to my father to see his school carried on. But he will ... in Yahiko."

"And you?" Soujiro pressed quietly.

Kaoru thought about it for a moment, her hand drifting to absently caress the hilt of her wooden sword. "I love to teach," she answered truthfully.

"To be a teacher is a great ambition, Kaoru-san," Soujiro said, and turned his face away for a moment while he thought. "But is it really yours? You only improve if you face challenges." The wood of the fire crackled in the stillness until a snore shattered it and Soujiro's pensive mood. "I am sorry, Kaoru. I do not mean to press. It is just that you have great potential."

Kaoru stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief and surprise. "Soujiro-san ..."

Soujiro stilled her denial by holding up the stick he was roasting and watched the smoke curl lazily from the end. "You do. As does your son; though Kenji-chan won't learn your style."

Kaoru's disbelief sharpened into disapproval and a glare. "Of course he will! Kenji is too gifted not to be taught!"

"In this case, Kaoru-san, it is his gift that will prevent him from learning your style. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a very fine style, but it is not the style of a warrior. It is the style of a protector. Kenji needs Hiten Mitsurgi Ryu. And soon he will ask for it. Perhaps not vocally, but he will become harder to direct during lessons. Already he melds the styles he sees his parents practicing."

"…But Kenshin insists," Kaoru protested, and stopped as she saw Soujiro's eyebrow rise. She calmed herself with a deep breath and tried again. "Kenshin insists that Hiten Mitsurgi Ryu dies with him."

"Then he will poison your little dragon."

"Kenshin would _never_ do anything to hurt either of us," Kaoru defended, eyes flashing in anger.

"Harm doesn't have to be intentional."

"I'm not sure I like where this is going, Seta-san."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to frighten you, but potential stifled often becomes frustration, which can lead to rage … And your son has a great deal of potential."

Soujiro tossed the remainder of his stick in the flames and climbed to his feet. He bowed slightly to her before walking away to take his turn at watch.

The next morning, Kaoru seemed significantly more subdued. Subdued, but not inattentive. She kept Kenji's hand firmly in hers, as she had no desire to repeat that morning's experience involving a raccoon and a very tall oak tree, which took several minutes to rectify.

"Hey, Kaoru," Sano said as he strolled, not having to work to keep up with the pace because his legs were so much longer than everyone else's, "you feeling okay? Not giving up hope, are you?"

"Of course not. We'll find Kenshin." Kaoru shook her head and held up her bokken thoughtfully. "I'm wondering at which point I forgot how much I love this."

"What, your bokken?" Sano asked, looking at the length of polished wood in confusion. Kaoru smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Kenjutsu, Sano. I didn't pick up a sword just because I lived in a dojo, or entirely because of my father's sword school. I picked it up because I wanted to become stronger and because I loved it." Sano shrugged. "You're a good fighter, Kaoru. If you're wanting to start training again, I'm sure there's all kinds of dojos that would be happy to have you."

"It's not training, it's ... I want to _use_ my father's style," Kaoru mused. "I haven't had a chance to since I was eighteen. I don't know if I can anymore. Besides, I don't know if Kenshin will like it."

"Challenging you means finding guys to fight that are better than you," Sano shrugged. "Doesn't seem to me like I'd like my wife putting herself in danger either, but I don't really see as how Kenshin's got much room to talk in that area. Just don't go around challenging random swordsmen. Hell, last time you did that, you ended up married to the miscreant."

Kaoru laughed. "It's going to be a long conversation, in any case."

"Loosen him up first," Sano suggested. "Kenshin's such a lightweight. I tell you what, it only takes a couple shots of sake…"

"Kenshin's smarter than that," Kaoru pointed out, wrinkling her nose. "He'd make sure I took a drink first."

Sano shrugged. "I can't help it that you're not devious enough to trick your own husband."

"I think it's more a matter of respecting him too much to get him plastered before we have a serious discussion," Kaoru said, unable to keep the laugh out of her voice.

Kenji tugged her hand immediately. "Kaasan…"

"Kaasan's talking right now, Kenji-chan."

Kenji huffed a bit at being thwarted and looked around for options. His mother was distracted with her conversation, but still had a firm, experienced, grip on his hand. Yahiko was further ahead with Soujiro, and too far away to recruit or warn. Kenji sighed and took a few experimental swings with his shinai before changing his grip like he had seen his father do the times they had gone to the river and hitting the ground. Dirt and grass erupted along a shallow crack in the road.

Abruptly, Sano stopped. "Kid," he said softly. "Don't swing that stick like that unless you're aiming at somebody, and then you had better have a darn good reason for it. A shinai is not a toy."

Kenji saw his opening. "Sano-nii, somebody is looking for us!"

"What do you mean, somebody?" Soujiro asked, turning swiftly. "Lots of someones, Kenji-chan?"

"No," Kenji said, a bit irritable that no one was picking up on this. "One somebody who is looking for us… but he's busy at the moment. He's fighting lots of bad men."

Soujiro took a deep breath and seemed to be listening intently for several moments before shaking his head and swearing softly. "Behind us and to the east. But not far. We should be able to hear the battle shortly if we retrace go back or they come closer."

"How did Kenji know?" Kaoru demanded.

Soujiro raised a grim eyebrow and pointed at the small crack in the packed earth with the hand that wasn't occupied clutching at the hilt of his sakabatou. "Your son can manipulate ki, Kaoru-san. What makes you think he can't read it as well?"

"Okay, Kenji-chan, new rule. After we go see what's happening, any time you develop a new skill, you have to tell Kaasan."

"Hai!" Kenji said, and tugged on her hand. "Hurry, Kaasan. There's lots of bad men."

The group moved off, traveling as fast as Kenji's little legs could carry him until Sano snatched him up. They came over a hill and turned towards the east. As soon as Kaoru could see, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Hiko-san."

"You know that guy, Jou-chan?" The rippling expanse of grass spread below them was dotted with a loose ring of rough-looking men surrounding a lone figure of billowing white and red. "Damn, there's gotta be over ten thugs down there!"

"Local yakuza, most likely. And all of them with ki soaked in blood." Soujiro flicked a few inches of steel from the saya at his waist. "He will need our help."

"Right." Sano cracked his knuckles and grinned. "One of you want to stay up here with Kenji?"

Yahiko threw his shinai over his shoulder and stepped forward to grab their shoulders and hold them both back. "Don't," he said firmly.

"Yahiko, they've got him outnumbered ten to one!" Sano protested.

"That's a shame," Yahiko said, "because it's not nearly enough."

"Not nearly en ..." Sano started, until the screams began. The man Kaoru had dubbed "Hiko" flickered out of sight and the nearest man's head disappeared into the grass, leaving a bloody trail as the body followed. Hiko reappeared beyond the dead man, and flicked the blood from his blade with a quick twist of his wrist. The other would-be attackers remained stunned for a heartbeat, regarding their impassively amused prey before attacked en masse with a collection of hoarse shouts.

They fell with impressive speed, with Hiko appearing an instant before each died then moving on to the next. In the end, he stood alone with a bloody sword and the mortal remains ten men lying around him.

"You know that guy!" Sano fairly yelped. "He fights like ...like ..."

"Like Himura-san," Soujiro finished for him.

"Exactly! Like Keshin!"

Kaoru coughed delicately, and uncovered Kenji's eyes. "He's Kenshin's sensei." she said to Sano. "Or, as he prefers, shishou."

"... Oh." Sano said, and scratched his head.

The swordsman turned and his lips quirked upwards as he saw the group. He flicked the loose blood from the blade before he swept past the bodies and towards them. Sanosuke set Kenji down, and noted with annoyance that even he had to look _up_ to the man. Hiko halted a few meters from them and regarded them with a condescending smirk. "You're late."

Kaoru felt, as she always did, like a very small child under the weight of his gaze and fought the urge to apologize. She was soon distracted from her terror by the sight of her son, standing with his hands on his hips as he looked up.

"Can I tell them about you now?" the child asked impetuously.

Kaoru stared at Kenji, feeling a little lightheaded. When did she get so blind she missed out on important things like ki-reading and meetings with Hiko in her son's life.

"There was a small incident involving barrels full of eels," Hiko said evenly, and regarded Kenji very carefully for a moment before speaking again. "You realize, young man, that you have distracted me from my sake-buying trip? Inconvenient, just like your father."

"Kaasan! Are you just going to let him talk that way about Tousan?"

Kaoru laughed, unable to help herself, glancing from her son to the swordsman and back again. Neither knew just quite how to handle the other. "I cannot stop him, Kenji-chan. Hiko-san has known your Tousan a long time."

Kenji thought for a long moment and then turned to Hiko. "You can help us find him. But only if you're nice."

Hiko looked dumbstruck for a moment, which Kenji took for acceptance. "Let's hurry. I want to find Tousan soon."

"So do I, Kenji-chan," Kaoru said, took her son's hand, and started walking again. "So do I."

* * *

**Chi's Notes:** We brought Hiko back!

**Kat's Notes:** We're so sorry we missed updating last week! There was ... stuff and life. I think the plan is a double update this week, if we can swing it. We'll have to see how that goes. I hope so, as there is (more) Kenji-Hiko interaction next chapter and I love those two.


	7. The Further Road

**Chapter 7: The Further Road**

"He's a bit scrawny to be training," Hiko noted, as he watched his student's wife correct her son's stance. The group had stopped for the night, and Kaoru had immediately whisked their youngest member to an open space and began instructing him in how to hold the (in Hiko's opinion) ridiculously small bamboo blade the boy had been proudly carrying as they traveled.

Soujiro smiled slightly in reply. "Kenji-chan has left us with very little choice."

Hiko snorted, and drank a bit of his remaining sake. "Stubborn, is he?"

"More like precocious," Yahiko muttered, kicking a stone absent-mindedly as he joined them. "Kenshin's not going to be happy."

At Hiko's raised eyebrow Yahiko hesitated, but Soujiro continued in a quiet voice, "I believe Himura-san has assumed that Kenji-chan will train in his mother's sword style."

"Exactly what the sword-girl over there is doing," Hiko pointed out. "Even that idiot isn't going to be stupid enough to tell the boy he can't pick up a sword."

"It's not the sword," Yahiko said. "It's the style. Kenshin wants Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu to die with him."

"It is not the style that became the Hitokiri Battousai," Hiko said. "It was the idiocy of a young boy with an even more foolish master," he muttered in a much quieter tone.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is very effective," Sano pointed out dryly, "and in the wrong hands, it becomes a weapon capable of destroying…. Anything."

"Swords are for protecting life, yes," Hiko said, looking straight at Yahiko. "Sometimes we must take life to protect another. This vow of no killing is dangerous idiocy."

"It's not idiocy," Soujiro defended quietly, folding his hands into the trailing ends of his gi. "It is survival in a world that is phasing out the old ways of the sword. Adaptation is strength now."

"Yeah, but will that be enough for Kenji? Kamiya Kasshin doesn't include things like the Do Ryu Sen Kenji pulled off," Yahiko said flatly.

"Kenji-chan!" Kaoru's irritated voice carried over the group. "Just the basics, please. You can't become good without the fundamentals."

"Impatient," Hiko mused. "And is that is something he inherited from his mother or his father?"

Sano laughed. "Both, poor kid. He got the best and worst of both worlds."

Hiko snorted and rose to his feet. "The little dragon didn't get the worst of his father. He just caught Kenshin's temper."

Kaoru signaled a halt and smiled at her small pupil. "That's enough for today, Kenji-chan. We've got to be rested enough to walk tomorrow."

"Hai," he answered, dropping his shinai from the ready stance he had been holding. As they walked back to rejoin the men, Kenji reached up to scratch at his hair, and then scratched at his nose, and arms and neck before making a huff of irritation and attacking his scarlet rat's nest of hair again.

"Oi, you okay?" Yahiko asked, noticing the small boy's frustrated scratching.

"Itchy!" he pronounced, trying to maneuver the hilt of his shinai to get an illusive place on his back.

"If we could stop someplace and have a bath, that would be great," Kaoru said, almost dreamily. "Some of us are getting almost unbearable to be around," she added, with a pointed look at Sano.

"What? I'm not the one that went eel diving!"

"I don't know how you ever think Fox Lady's going to notice you if you go around smelling like week-old garbage all the time," Yahiko teased.

"Hmph. Like I should listen to advice about women from you, Yahiko-_chan_. Do you smell pretty for Tsubame?"

"Hey!" Yahiko shouted and jumped to his feet.

"If either of you think I have the patience to listen to two idiots argue about a subject neither knows anything about, you're sadly mistaken," Hiko said, taking a gulp of his sake.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" Yahiko asked before he could stop himself.

With a quick flick of his wrists, Hiko sent their heads flying together, and both whirled dizzily before falling to the ground. "Don't ask stupid questions, boy."

"I know of an inn a short distance from Gisu," Soujiro said, with an unexpected twitch to his lips of a real smile trying to break through. "We can base our operations out of there and stay out of the range of the slave ring until we're ready to do something about them."

"Sounds good, Soujiro-san," Kaoru said with a yawn, setting up her futon, with Kenji's smaller one laid beside it. The others picked their way to their chosen sleeping places as she did. Yahiko and Sano set to a quiet argument over who got closest to the small campfire, while Soujiro curled himself in the shadows of a nearby tree. Hiko stepped away from the group entirely and walked with eerily silent movements to the peak a knoll well beyond the firelight. He dropped comfortably into the tall grasses, and settled in to take the first watch. "Kenji-chan?" Kaoru asked softly. "Do you need to go before I tuck you in?"

"Kaa-san!" Kenji whined, looking scandalized and jumping away from her as if he'd been attacked. "Not in front of… everyone!"

Kenji stalked away with the air of an affronted kitten. As soon as the boy disappeared behind a tree, the group dissolved into laughter.

Hiko waited for the moon to drop below the tree line before returning to the encampment. Bundled lumps of shadow, just slightly lighter than the ground, marked the forms of his baka deshi's family. The former gangster snored and the young, would-be samurai drooled, and Hiko wondered, again, why he was even bothering. Looking at the smaller set of bundles, and beyond them to the curled up form of Seta Soujiro, he found his answer. Even committed to a ridiculous quest and wearing that silly parody of a katana, the Tenken was still the Tenken and no one in their right mind left a heavenly blade unsheathed around children.

He crossed to the tree the ronin was propped against and nudged the younger man's sandal-clad foot with a boot. The ronin's eyes opened, senses wary for any threat even as his eyes began banishing the fuzziness of sleep and he looked up at the giant towering above him. Hiko waited until they made eye contact, and Soujiro registered who had awoken him, before turning and wordlessly walking back to the campfire.

Surveying the rag-tag group once more, he found a tree near the fire and settled against its trunk, katana within reach. With a sigh, he stretched out one leg, but kept the other bent and close to his body, so he could rise quickly. His eyes settled in their customary half-closed position for only a moment when he heard the movement in the trees. Ah. It was the half-pint brat. The child had the smallest bladder he'd ever encountered, and would probably outdo his father, who had wet the bed until his eighth summer.

He had once again relaxed when he sensed the brat's approach. His destination appeared to be Hiko himself. "Hey, kid. Save yourself the trouble. Go sleep by your Kaa-san."

Kenji blinked wearily and shook his head, moving Hiko's katana slightly and settling himself in Hiko's lap. Hiko grumbled in irritation as he scooped the child up, climbed back to his feet, and unceremoniously dropped the boy to his own bedroll. Kenji landed with a muffled thud, and blinked up and him. Ignoring the child, Hiko returned to his own sleeping place and settled back in.

A short time later, Hiko awoke again to find the child curled up next to him. Struggling against the irritation and amusement rising in his chest, he took a deep breath. "Don't you know it's a stupid thing to piss off the master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu?" he whispered to the boy. All he received in reply was a gentle snort. "All right. If you're going to be stubborn about it, there's no need to freeze." Carefully, he rearranged the blankets for optimum warmth and settled his arm around the sleeping child. "If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you without hesitation."

Sunlight filtered through the trees, casting dancing shadows across Kaoru's face and warming away the early morning dew. She could smell the woody tang of crushed grass and damp earth along with wood smoke and hear the appetizing sizzling of what smelled like fish. Blinking blurry eyes open, she saw Soujiro and Yahiko crouched beside the fire, with a cluster of trimmed branches braced in front of them, each skewering a scaly prize. Clearly, someone had been awake long enough to make use of the lines and hooks stowed in their supplies.

Shaking her head in an effort to wake up, Kaoru checked the camping area again. Soujiro, Yahiko, Sano… all here. Kenji's bedroll wasn't next to hers anymore. Panicked, she sat fully up.

"Good morning, Kaoru-san," Soujiro called cheerfully. "If you're looking for your son, I believe he has joined Hiko-san for practice this morning."

"He did WHAT?"

"Hiko took Kenji with him this morning. They went walking off by the river… They were up early enough to catch breakfast, though."

Kaoru breathed out a sigh of relief. At least someone had been keeping an eye out for Kenji in the early morning hours, a task that usually fell to… Kenshin. It seemed as though Kenshin's master, who had once denied any master-apprentice relationship when Kenshin refused to take the Hiko Seijuro name couldn't avoid his affection for Kenshin, or even Kenshin's children. "I knew it," she whispered to herself.

"Knew what?" Hiko's voice interrupted her internal revelry.

"Kaa-san!" Kenji's happy voice called to her, followed by the Kenji himself appearing beside the towering figure of Hiko, and racing pell-mell out of the trees. His shinai was already strapped to his back, she noticed, and his face was flushed with excitement. Hiko approached at a more sedate pace, and settled beside Kaoru.

"Go attack the rooster, chibi-ryuu," he ordered with surprising mildness.

"Hiko-san!" Kaoru protested. "He's only a small boy. Sano's gentle, but he can't repress his instincts to defend himself."

Hiko snorted derisively as there was a muffled yelp from Sano, followed by a blistering curse and bell-like laugh from Kenji. Kaoru's eye twitched and she turned to nail the street fighter with a withering glare. Hiko pulled her attention back with a blunt question. "What ghost from that ill-conceived slaughter is haunting my baka deshi this time?"

"Excuse me?" Kaoru asked.

"The idiot is not here, and you are obviously chasing him. The only question that remains is, why is he missing?"

Kaoru blinked back a sudden onslaught of tears. "We don't know. He was supposed to take the train home from Kyoto, but he gave a needy woman his ticket and decided to walk home. He didn't make it to our dojo. We've lost him somewhere between Kyoto and Tokyo."

"And you now believe he's been sidetracked pursuing another of his idealistic crusades," Hiko said. "That moron will not allow the past to rest, will he?"

"Soujiro-san thinks Kenshin's been fighting the same slaver ring as he. Do you think… do you think that's possible?"

Hiko looked off in the distant. "I find it a very probable idea. Your husband has no great affection for slavers. For that matter, neither do I."

"I thought you weren't idealistic, Hiko-san."

"It's not idealism. It's experience. And I will say no more. If we wish to reach this inn of Seta-san's, we had best get started."

The tantalizing scents of cooking rice and frying vegetables reached them first. Sun glinted across the tiles on the roof, touching the bland grey of the slate with golden light and warmed the red-stained wood of the walls invitingly.

"Looks nice, Seta-san," Kaoru said, holding on to Kenji's hand firmly so he wouldn't get ideas about climbing the wall.

"It's a nice location," Yahiko observed. "Right outside the city, so people who don't want to have to fight the traffic can just stay here. Pretty smart, if you ask me."

"Kid, you don't know anything about being smart," Sano tossed out with a cocky grin, unable to put any real effort into the sting with the smell of food so close.

"I'm hungry!" Kenji announced, and grabbed his stomach. "Are we eating here?"

Kaoru hesitated for a moment, considering the contents of their money purse, and making a few calculations.

"We should arrive in time for the evening meal," Hiko said, interrupting her thoughts as he looked upward at the position of the sun above the trees. "I see no reason not to take advantage of the inn's full amenities."

"I suppose we can take advantage of a civilized meal while we're here," Kaoru mused aloud.

"Yes!" Yahiko shouted. "To the inn, and dinner!"

They moved very quickly through the final distance to the front of the inn, where the innkeeper met them at the door.

"Welcome!" she greeted them brightly.

"Thank you, Okami-san," they all chorused.

"Come in. Dinner's about ready, and we can have hot baths ready in a short while, if that interests you."

A quick look at Kenji and Kaoru nodded. "Sounds wonderful. Thank you, Okami-san."

"Right this way."

* * *

**Words Chi had to learn for this fic:**  
_Okami-san:_ female innkeeper  
_chibi-ryuu:_ little dragon.  
_baka deshi:_ idiot student/pupil.

**Chi's Note:** Oh, to be a fly on a tree when Hiko and Kenji had their "lesson", ne? I'm having a blast with this fic. Thanks for reading it!

**Kat's Note:** Chi insisted we call the mini glossary that name .: points above :.. Just in case you're new to this fandom, and are getting confused by the few Japanese terms. She also said she would write that outtake with Hiko and Kenji for lots of money. But then we'd probably get sued. So we'd settle for ... reviews? (Yes, I'm teasing you.) Seriously, I think we have like three outtakes planned for this thing now. We'll get to them eventually, ne?


	8. In Season

**Chapter 8 - In Season**

"Soujiro-san, is everything all right?" Kaoru asked, noting the other man's uneasiness as she herded Kenji into place beside her. After a much-enjoyed, and needed, bath, Kaoru had changed from her hakama and gi into a deep plum-colored kimono embroidered with trails of white blossoms, and wrestled a reluctant and protesting Kenji into a yukata. One of the Okami's girls had arrived shortly after to escort them to a private room off the dining hall.

"I ... do not recognize any of the servers, or the Okami, that is all," Soujiro said hesitantly.

"You stop here a lot, then?" Sano had acquired a fishbone from somewhere while they had waited for dinner, and was chewing on one end.

"It has been several years," Soujiro admitted.

"Things change," Sano said dismissively and took a deep appreciative sniff. "Ah, real food."

Hiko snorted. "Decent sake, that's what I'm hoping for."

Soujiro nodded. "You are right, it's probably nothing."

The last scarlet rays of the sun filtered through the paper shouji, which whispered aside to admit a pair of young women balancing a stack of trays in their hands. They set the trays on the table, miraculously keeping their elegant sleeves from trailing through any of the food. Kenji shifted as they swept between his place, and where Hiko sat to his left so he could duck behind Kaoru's arm. Kaoru lifted her sleeve to raise questioning eyebrows at the usually-gregarious boy. Kenji's bright blue eyes stared back, his hands fisted in her kimono fabric, until a yawn caught him off guard. Her concern melted and she reached out to tuck him closer.

The serving girls bowed to the group as they finished their task, and left, leaving the shouji open, which looked out onto a simple formal garden of stone paths and well-tended shrubbery.

The dinner progressed quickly, as the group concentrated more on eating a real meal than on conversing with each other. When they were done eating dinner, the servant girls brought out the sake. With a gracious nod, Kaoru took the small jug they left on the table and poured saucers for the men.

Kenji looked up expectantly. "No, Kenji-chan," Kaoru said patiently.

Kaoru set the small bottle to one side and picked up her tea cup. Soujiro looked at her in slight puzzlement and set his sake cup down. "Kaoru-san. Would you like one of us to pour for you?"

"No thank you, Soujiro-san. I don't drink sake."

"It's because she's a lightweight," Sano said, and took a long draw of the liquid, and then refilling his own cup.

"No, it's because I have Kenji," Kaoru said.

"Yeah," Yahiko agreed. "And you're a lightweight."

Kaoru's eyes sharpened and her hand edged toward the pitcher of sake before she stilled and settled for smiling evilly and rising to her feet, carrying her teacup with her. "Let's go sit outside, Kenji-chan. It sounds like they have frogs in the garden."

Kenji perked up at the mention of slimy things and his mother's tacit approval of looking for them.

"Good," Hiko muttered as he sipped his sake once Kaoru and Kenji had exited the room. "She's not as much of a chatterbox as she used to be, but it's nice to drink sake in silence."

Sano raised an eyebrow and looked around diplomatically before he nodded. He wasn't going to risk a bump on the head from either Hiko or Kaoru. "Soujiro, you haven't touched your sake."

"No, Sagara-san, I have not," Soujiro replied, voice quiet and void of clear emotion. Sano snorted and reached for the pitcher to pour himself more.

"Damn shame. It's good sake."

From the noise they were making, it was good sake. Sagara and the boy had three bottles they were drinking their way through. Soujiro picked up his cup and swirled the pale liquid, watching it darken the ceramic where it clung to the edges.

"Sake changes with the seasons," Hiko's deep voice rumbled as conversationally as the ronin had ever heard him speak. The massive man was refilling his cup with a measured, practiced hand, and looked to be ignoring his companions. Soujiro began to doubt whether Hiko had sad anything at all. Without looking at him, Hiko set the remainder of the final jug in front of Soujiro and rose.

Sano raised an eyebrow at the younger man and said with only the hint of a slur, "I think he's trying to say that good men do, too."

When Soujiro nodded, Sano rose as well to walk to the shouji. "You know, Kenshin wouldn't drink sake for a long time when I first met him. Tasted blood."

"Will he drink it now?"

"Oh yeah. Says it smells like jasmine now, whatever that means."

Soujiro smiled, but it was not the same one Sano was used to seeing. This was not the smile of the broken boy with no emotions or the rurouni who avoided them. This was the sad smile of a man trying to come to terms with his past. "I have no Kaoru-dono to save me, Sagara-san."

Sano shrugged. "You ever think that Kaoru didn't save Kenshin? He did that all by himself. He had to be ready for her. Kaoru came along when he was ready. Whether he believed it or not."

"Where is your Kaoru-dono who came along at the right time for you, Sano-san?" Soujiro asked.

"Aizu. When we find Kenshin, I'm going to find her," Sano said, and his eyes drifted out over the landscape. "I hope she's waiting for me."

"I, as well, Sano-san," Soujiro said as a strange sense of peace stole over him. Cautiously, he took a sip. In the sake was a hint of the air of summer. "Changing seasons indeed, Hiko-san," Soujiro muttered.

Hiko grunted and started to leave, stepping over Yahiko's sprawled form as he went, then pausing and looked down with narrowed eyes. The young man had sprawled haphazardly across the tatami and seating cushions, commandeering Sano's in addition to his own.

"The boy didn't have that much to drink," Hiko said to the room, and turned around. Sano was slumping against the wall, and Soujiro's eyes were drifting shut.

Hiko cursed, as he felt his muscles turn to lead and the weight of his eyelids press against his eyes.

"I think we've been drugged," Sano said aloud. "Can you make it to Kaoru and Kenji? They need to get out."

"Yes," Hiko answered shortly, using all his energy to remain awake as he stumbled outside. His vision was blurring, with a growing darkness around the edges, and he could feel lethargy dragging at this steps. With an annoyed snarl, Hiko reached up and wrenched at his mantle, allowed the weighted cloak to fall and freeing himself from the added weight. Anyone who would drug sake deserved no mercy, and Hiko's ki senses extended with deadly intent, though shaky and blurry now as the drug coursing through him dragged at his mind.

The grounds outside the hotel were well-kept, it would be easy to spot his former student's wife and offspring. Hiko grunted. He was unused to devoting this much energy to staying upright and concentrating on foot placement. He would have to find his idiot student's family, and soon, if he wanted to be semi-coherent when he did so.

Coming around the corner of the hotel, he heard Kenji's familiar piping voice. "Kaasan, I don't know what exactly, but…"

He saw them, mother and son crouched together studying the small creek that ran behind the hotel. At his voice, Kaoru turned swiftly. "Kaoru-san, they've drugged the sake. Take the boy and get to safety."

Kaoru's eyes widened as she took in the hesitating stumble in Hiko's movements; unnatural in a man so accustomed to moving with deadly grace. "Hiko-san!"

"Dammit, girl!" Hiko barked. "Go!"

As Kaoru fought between her instincts to fight and her instinct to protect her child, Kenji made the choice for her, making a break for the trees surrounding the hotel. "Kenji!" she shouted as she ran to catch up.

"I'm gonna get Tousan!" Kenji shouted back, as he ran with his unnatural speed.

"Get the brat!" Kaoru heard a shout from behind her. She had no time to think over Kenji's certainty of his father's presence. Ten women wielding an assortment of weapons were now intent on cutting her son's path off.

"You'll have to get through me first!" she shouted, reaching behind her for the bokken that she had carried constantly for the last week. Her hand met embroidered cotton and she realized with a sinking feeling of doom, that her bokken was still in her room. She could even visualize the polished length of wood lying atop her folded futon with Kenji's nestled beside it. She had left it behind, thinking that it would be impolite to carry it with her into dinner; even if Soujiro and Hiko had both been wearing their swords, and Sano was technically never without his preferred weapons.

Hiko's sheathed sword landed at her feet and she refocused on the swords master, who was tottering before her eyes. "Kaoru. The warrior protects because she realizes the value of others."

Kaoru bit her lip in understanding and scooped up the sword, then dashed after her son, not looking back even when she heard Hiko collapse behind her. Kenji needed her protection, and she would have to trust the others to defend themselves for now. She could do that. And, in the meantime, she would try and adapt her training to the deadly weapon in her hands. Hiko's blade was perfectly balanced when it was bared. While still in its sheath, it was point-heavy and put more strain on her arms than her bokken did. Also, she could never use her bokken to kill, and she did not want to kill with the katana. She would have to exercise more self-control than she normally did.

"Right," she breathed. "Kenshin does this all the time. I can do it." Before her mind could shout at the gross unfairness of that particular comparison, she settled into her traditional defensive stance.

Kamiya Kasshin Ryu was not the best style for being so grossly outnumbered, but Kaoru was an adaptable fighter. She'd always had to be in the past, and now, not only was her life on the line, but also the life of her son.

The women broke into two groups, and half held back. Kaoru assumed they were waiting until she was distracted to go after Kenji. The remaining five focused their entire attention on her. "Good. Right. Breathe."

The first to attack was a woman carrying two daggers, which called for close fighting… not a weapon Kaoru herself would have chosen in any situation, especially in a battle with a katana. A blow to the stomach took care of that attacker, while another woman came in on her left. Kaoru barely had time to block the attack headed straight for her head before she was defending herself against being gutted like a fish.

Dimly, she acknowledged the sounds of fighting beyond her own … Grunts and whacks that were not coming from the group she was with, but could not focus on anything beyond the opponents standing between her and her child, and the unending now. An overhead blow took out the woman who was crouched low to use her chains and an elbow knocked out another woman. "Four down," she muttered, and turned around, only to find herself facing the tip of a katana.

The woman behind the naked blade grinned ruthlessly and moved minutely, preparing to impale Kaoru's throat on the silvery steel. Kaoru dropped, throwing herself back and to one side, desperate to get enough distance to bring Hiko's sword up to turn aside the blow she knew was coming. She hit the ground and rolled, ignoring the sickening thud a hair's-breath away as the other woman's sword sank into the ground.

A spray of pebbly sand from the path caught Kaoru across the face as it was thrown into the air and she cursed, eyes watering and sight blurring. Forcing her eyes open, she saw a blurry shape advancing on her, and the flash of steel in its hand. Kaoru slashed upward to block and knock the other off balance, cursing the weight of Hiko's sword, and the rattle of the sheath around the blade as it slipped loose.

Sliver erupted in front of her and caught her blade across an unyielding length of a katana, then stilled. Kaoru's involuntary tears finally cleared her eyes as the sheath, loosened by the battle, succumbed to gravity and slid off with the hissing whisper of wood over steel.

Her opponent faced her through their crossed blades, and blinked wide violet eyes at her. "Oro?"

* * *

**LadyChi's Notes**: This has been, as Hiko-sama says, a time of changing seasons, especially in my life, and I appreciate everyone's patience as our once-a-week update plan kind of slides and flexes and Kat and I try to survive the college experience, something I've only just begun. Thank you, as always, for the favorites and the alerts and the reviews. We appreciate your reading very much. Keep your socks on for Chapter 9. It's going to be a doosy.

**Kat's Notes**: She means for us to edit. It's going to be a doosy for us to edit. Which usually means we're going to be writing several other chapters in advance in an effort to avoid it. And yes, college life does have this tendency to beat us up, take away our lunch money, and stuff us in a locker fairly frequently. Anyway ... for everyone who wanted to know when Kenshin was going to show his red-headed self, this is for you. This is also your first official notice that the rating is going up in about two chapters. We thought we'd get away with a PG rating and it's ... not happening. Oh well. C'est la vie. Especially with stubborn and persistant muses!


	9. Wanderer Found, Adventurers Lost

**Chapter 9 - Wanderer Found, Adventurers Lost**

Kenji was beginning to see why Sano swore so much. He wedged himself tighter into a hollow he'd found, barely breathing for fear he would be heard, and letting the tree's leaves filter the light away. Many voices, all of them unfamiliar, called to one another below as they searched for him. So far, however, they hadn't thought to look up.

The minute he began to relax, he felt an arm grabbing his leg. Kenji shrieked and started thrashing.

A pair of astonished brown eyes surveyed him for a moment before the lady, whoever she was, shouted, "It's the midget-kid!" Kenji took that as an opportunity to escape before the woman grabbed his other leg. "And he's a fast little shit."

Kenji growled, and scurried down the tree he'd been hiding in. He dodged past the woman that had grabbed him, and skidded away from her, slipping slightly on the mist-soaked grass before he recovered his footing.

Recalling very specific instructions by his mother… if he was ever alone in a bad situation, he was to head in the direction he'd seen her last, he turned and started a sprint towards the hotel. He was stopped immediately by the crazy lady holding a sword. Amazed, he stopped. How'd she gotten around him?

"All right, kid. You'd better just give yourself up," she said menacingly, swinging the sword from side to side. "I ain't exactly got any moral qualms about killing babies." Kenji bared his teeth in an insulted snarl and the woman snorted at him. "C'mon, brat. She wants you before morning."

Kenji spotted a fallen branch, more of a large stick but the right size for him, lying half in a pool of shadow a few feet away, and he tensed. A stick wouldn't do a lot against the sword she was casually waving around, but the flicker of something familiar beckoned not too far away, and all he needed to do was distract her long enough to reach it. Launching himself with every ounce of speed he's learned dodging baths and bedtime, Kenji lunged for the branch.

"That's not nice!" Screwing his face in concentration, he focused all his ki through the stick and swung it toward the ground, which separated with a very satisfying crack.

The woman paused a moment, then a smile spread across her face and an evil light lit her eyes. "All right, kid. You wanna play hardball, let's go."

The flat of her sword came arcing towards Kenji, and he jumped away to avoid it. There was a sinking realization that he wouldn't be able to avoid his opponents for much longer. Exhaustion dragged at him, and his breath was coming in pants.

"Keiko-kun."

His attacker stilled at the call, and looked up to something behind the boy. A rustle of silk, jarringly different compared to the whistling of moving blades and shouting voices, ghosted over the stones and grass of the garden. Kenji chanced looking over his shoulder to see who had saved him. The okami of the inn stood serenely before them, her dark functional kimono now exchanged for a formal one of emerald silk, and her dark hair pulled up elaborately with jade combs tipped in gold ornaments that chimed, bell-like, as she moved.

"Ayama-san." The one called Keiko acknowledged Amaya with a bow of respect.

"I seem to have caught you at a bad time," Amaya said mildly, "but I believe I expressed to you a sense of urgency when I sent you on this portion of the mission, and I need your expertise in the holding room."

"Yare, yare. I'm moving," Keiko said with an impatient sigh. "What the hell do you want me to do with the brat?"

A wintery, amused, smile touched her painted lips and she turned to return the way she had come. "Bring 'the brat'. And in one piece, if you would."

"All right. Whatever you say. I still think it would have been more fun to chop him into little pieces. The dogs like to eat children better that way."

Keiko didn't even have to touch him. The combination of exhaustion and the image caused Kenji to faint dead away.

Keiko sighed. "Pansy-ass little shit."

"Kenshin ..." Kaoru breathed, staring at him as though half-convinced he would evaporate if she looked away despite the restrained strength she felt pressing against Hiko's katana in her hands. The sheathe of the katana slipped free completely and clattered to the ground between them, breaking the silence. Kaoru watched the reflected light from the sakabatou shift across Kenshin's face as he shifted aside fluidly and broke their swords' lock.

Kenshin reached out tentatively to her face, a warm mixture of sadness and relief lighting his eyes, before he pulled her into his arms a bit desperately and breathed in her scent. For a moment, Kaoru allowed herself to relax in the arms of her husband. "I've been looking for you," she murmured into his shoulder. "I'd swear we've been across half of Japan looking for you."

Kenshin's murmurs were incomprehensible but soothing, his breath stirring her hair.

Kaoru stilled his face with her hands and kissed him. When his eyes were fully locked on hers, she let out a shaky breath. "You are in _so_ much trouble."

"O ... oro?" Kenshin managed, and Kaoru swatted his shoulder.

"Kenshin, why didn't you _tell us_ when you decided to _evaporate_ for weeks on end? Misao has had the Oniwabanshu tearing the country apart looking for you, and Kenji kept asking when you were coming home!"

"I ... Koishii, I sent a letter when I realized I would be delayed."

"Delayed?" Kaoru asked, dangerously sweet.

Kenshin pulled the katana from her fingers, sheathed it, and slid both the katana and the sakabatou into the ties of his hakama. "I sent it with a merchant bound for Tokyo," he elaborated.

There was a pause in the conversation as they both stood awkwardly, wanting desperately to do something but not knowing exactly to say or... "Kenji!" Kaoru cried, snapping back to reality. "We were separated and five of those women went after him!"

Kenshin's eyes widened and he grabbed her hand, pulling Kaoru along as he took off in the direction of the tall trees ringing the inn's gardens. Kenshin sharpened his senses and _hunted_, trying and find some indication of his son. He allowed the predatory part of his nature that lurked to join and strengthen the panic of a father faced with losing his child, and defend against the lead-laced sense of dread curling around his heart.

"We'll find him before they do," he told Kaoru firmly, suppressing the bloody memories that were bubbling to the surface by force of will and long practice. His left hand loosened from clutching at the hilt of the sakabatou, and his fingers brushed against the wrapped cords and rough sharkskin of the katana resting below.

"Kaoru," Kenshin said over his shoulder as they ran through the forest while he scanned the area around it. "How did you come by Shishou's sword?"

"Um…" Kaoru searched for a way to sum up the weird series of coincidences that had led them to the situation they were in. "It's a bit of a long story."

Kenshin slowed abruptly, and dragged her into a stand of bamboo. His arm wrapped around her shoulder, pressing her into his body as he pressed her down beside him, keeping them hidden. Several heartbeats later, Kaoru picked up the rapid click of footfalls and hushed voices heading their way.

"Did they get the kid they were looking for?" One rough female voice asked.

"Yeah. Amaya-san sent Keiko-san to pick him up, and they've bundled him off to the mountain by now. The kid's toast, even if his daddy is the Demon of Kyoto."

"I'll bet there's already bidders." The woman's voice resonated with dark glee.

The other woman shrugged artlessly. "Even if he doesn't net us a high price, the rest of tonight's catch will be worth the trouble." She tapped one nail against her lips speculatively and smiled. "Unless our leader decides to keep them, of course. Let's finish securing the place so we can catch up to the others."

Kenshin tightened the arm resting across Kaoru's shoulders, and laid a hand over her mouth, restraining her from lunging out at the women and demanding to know the exact whereabouts of her son. He was snarling silently enough for both of them. She glared up at him, pulling away and finding it as futile as if he'd wrapped her in steel. Kenshin failed to even _twitch_ and chance giving away their location. His eyes, however, shaded to a dangerous blue.

As the women passed out of earshot, Kenshin finally loosed his grip on Kaoru's mouth and she jumped away from him. "Kenshin! What were you thinking? We could have found out where Kenji is from those women!"

"There is no point," Kenshin said, his voice sinking to the lower register she had come to associate over the years with the Battousai side of her husband. "I know where they are going. There are few places in the mountains that could conceal a group this large."

"Well then, let's go! Kenji's only six, Kenshin. He doesn't know how to handle psychotic slave-trading women."

"Shishou has dealt with slave traders before, Koishii. And Yahiko is trustworthy under pressure," Kenshin told her. "Go after them we will, but I would not give her any reason to harm Kenji or use him as leverage."

Kaoru bit her lip in worry, then wrinkled her nose as a thought occurred to her. "How did you know I brought Yahiko?" Kaoru asked, puzzled. Kenshin smoothed her hair out of her eyes and pulled her up as he stood.

"Because Yahiko would never have allowed you to come alone."

Kaoru hummed annoyed agreement for a moment and said, "I suppose Soujiro and Sano can help, as well."

Kenshin stopped in his tracks and looked at her, disbelief coloring his blue eyes. "Sano returned from China? And Soujiro…"

"Found us and kept us from getting further lost after Sano decided he knew the way to Kyoto."

Kenshin rubbed at the bridge of his nose and led the way back out into the open. "Is there anyone, or anything, else I should know about, Koishii?"

Kaoru hesitated, ducking a low branch that they passed under as they avoided the main pathway, and a flash of Kenji proudly wielding his shinai and practicing inexpertly, but with impressive accuracy for his age. "No, Kenshin. No one else is with us."

Kenshin found himself chuckling despite the situation. "That's quite a traveling group, that it is."

"Kenji had the time of his life," Kaoru admitted. "And it was fun to see all the guys figure out how to deal with each other. I know Sano and Yahiko and Kenji are really looking forward to seeing you again, Kenshin."

"Soujiro and Hiko…" Kenshin's voice trailed off momentarily. "Soujiro would not be happy to see me again, I do not think. And Shishou… he is an enigma."

Kaoru nodded, and their whispered conversation subsided. Kenshin had not unwound from his tense state of alertness, but they had not heard or seen any indication of those they hunted. The entire inn looked, and _felt_, abandoned. As the pair finally arrived back at the dining rooms that overlooked the garden, they saw the shouji flung back and the rooms cluttered with discarded items.

Kaoru drew in a ragged breath and Kenshin took her arm gently. "Come, Koishii. We have a long walk to make this night if we're to find and rescue the others. Let's gather what we need so we can leave quickly."

"Shouldn't we just leave now?" Kaoru demanded, allowing Kenshin to help her up onto the porch. Despite her question, she moved to gather the familiar things littering the tatami. Yahiko's bokken lay beneath the table, crossed by Soujiro's sakabatou. Sano's jacket had been trampled and abandoned under several cushions. Kenshin had left her to gravitate to the stained mantle that looked like it had been thrown into the room as an afterthought and left to lie like a fallen bird.

Kenshin knelt, and straightened the folds as he responded. "The mantle should not be left behind; Shishou would very likely kill me. And Sano would not forgive us for losing his jacket."

"Kenshin, if we don't find my baby before they sell him off I'm never going to forgive you. And I am much scarier than Hiko-san, believe me."

"Maa maa, Koishii. You do not have to remind of that, that you did not."

* * *

**Kat's Notes:** Chi said I had to go first this time ... well, we finally finished this one off. It nearly killed us and got rewritten a time or two. Thank you to everyone for enjoying the plot twist last chapter. We had so much fun seeing the reactions! So, hopefully this has lived up to expectations, we have Kenshin back, and now ... we can get down to the business of finding everyone else. 'Til next time!

**Chi's Notes:** Kat's very good at writing Author's Notes, isn't she? In fact, she's brilliant at just about everything she does... including keeping me sane during rewrites. Just so you know, the title for this chapter was almost "In Which The Authors Committed Suicide During One of Several Attempts to Write the Blasted Thing"... it was shot down for length reasons. Anyway, we would have gotten this to you sooner, but my health has been a chronic issue of late. Thankfully, they've figured out what's causing the severeness and frequency of my sinus infections and I should be a normal, functioning human being soon. Several people deserve our thanks... Shinou, Emy... God, for the wealth of patience He gave us both with these stupid characters... And the several reviewers who asked questions...read our answers and then asked more questions. You're our favorites, because there's nothing we love more than chatting. Anyway, the next one is coming soon (Promise) and we'll be seeing you all and chatting in your reviews and e-mails. Until then, take care, have a safe holiday season and God Bless.


	10. 10: The Knife's Edge

1**Chapter 10 - The Knife's Edge**

"How are we going to find them?" Kaoru asked, digging through the supplies that still lay, untouched, in her room to find her gi and hakama. Kenshin leaned against the wall near the door, one hand resting on his sakabatou as he stood watch.

"They're not far ahead," Kenshin answered. "I will be able to track them."

"Okay," Kaoru said, finding the items she'd been looking for. She quickly bound her breasts, pulled on her gi and tied her hakama. When she reached to grab her bokken, her hand brushed against Kenji's shinai.

Turning her face, she tried to hide the silent tears that came, unbidden, to her eyes. Her precious baby boy… a flood of memories overwhelmed her. She felt the strong arm of her husband pull her against his chest and she clung to him desperately as his lips pressed against her forehead "Kenji-chan," she whispered, brokenly.

Kenshin shifted back to sit on the floor and pulled his wife forward, so she was cradled against him. Kaoru shuddered as she choked back a sob, and fisted her hands in his gi. "Cry, love."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Kaoru's eyes widened and she fought free of his arms. Dashing her hands against the tears, Kaoru shook her head and climbed to her feet before offering her hand to Kenshin. He regarded it with puzzlement, and Kaoru reached down, grabbed his hand, and tugged. "We don't have time. Soujiro – and Sanosuke too – said a few things while we were looking for you. And ... they're right."

Kenshin raised a scarlet eyebrow as he stood. With his thumb, he smoothed away some of the tears and kissed both of her cheeks. Kaoru threaded her fingers in his hair and returned his caress with a warm kiss that ended as swiftly as it had begun. Her hands slid down his neck, and over his shoulders, and she hugged him fiercely before breaking away.

Kaoru took a deep, steadying breath, and leaned back down for Kenji's shinai, hiding the smile at Kenshin's muttered "oro". She felt raw, but the fragility was melting away, giving way to the part of her that was smoldering, feeding on her pain and helpless anger, demanding to be released on the monsters that had caused this.

Kenshin half turned back to where she stood, the play of moonlight through the open door throwing his scarred face into sharp relief and glinting off the hilts and laquer of two swords, sakabatou and katana, that rested in the ties of his hakama. One of Kenshin's hands lay out of her sight, but the one she could see clutched the hilt of his sakabatou, white with the force of his grip. She wondered if that was to keep it away from the hilt of Hiko's katana and the deadly promise inherent in it.

Kaoru felt the edges of the bamboo she held cut into her palm, paired with the smoother lines of her own bokken curving against her back, and realized in that moment that she had to be calm. They both had to be calm. It was obvious that they were both walking the edge of a knife. She took a step towards her husband, and covered the hand that was clasping the sakabatou with her own.

Kenshin nodded, but couldn't quite bring himself to smile. "I am very glad to have you with me again, that I am."

Kaoru felt tears rising again, but pushed them aside. "So am I. Let's go kick some slaver-trader ass, shall we?"

-------------

Drip. Kenji scrunched his nose and staggered towards consciousness. Drip. Another followed a few seconds behind the first, hauling him further away from the comforting blackness that was keeping things like crazy ladies spewing death threats and boy-eating dogs away.

A splash of wetness landed on his eye, following the trail of the first two down his nose and across his cheek. Or maybe not the first two, judging from the damp way his fringe was clinging to his face and the sodden feeling in his yukata collar. Kenji batted the annoyance away, and felt his hand smack into something that felt like wet silk.

Kenji blinked and brought the face into focus. He was greeted by the sight of a small girl with her hair carefully arranged in a ponytail, her clothes worn and dirty. She smelled kind of funny, too. Kenji wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I'm awake, that I am," he muttered, imitating his father for the sake of comfort.

"That's a silly way of talking," the girl informed him and shook her head. "At least you're awake."

Kenji looked around at their bare surroundings and wondered if being awake was an improvement. Rough stone surrounded them, with a narrow opening covered by a folding screen carved in cranes. It looked odd against the natural stone surrounding it, and the flat top of the screen left a slim gap above it where the cave opening curved. The floor was level, but gritty with powdered stone. Two other small forms were huddled in what could, loosely, be termed a corner on the far side of the cave where a few tattered tatami mats had been scooted together to form a platform away from the stone and grit.

"What is this place?" Kenji asked, confused and cold.

"The cave _she_ keeps any kids she gets," the girl answered. "We're pretty deep in the other caves here. At least, we think so. They don't let us explore, so I don't know for sure."

"What's your name? Mine's Himura Kenji."

"Raikouji Chizuru," she sketched a polite bow then pointed at the other occupants of the room. "Those two over there are Emi and Neko."

"Neko?" Kenji echoed, confused.

"That's what we call her," Chizuru nodded. "She's ... well, you'll see. Are you a foreigner?"

"Oro?" Kenji opened his eyes wide. "Of course I'm not!"

Chizuru narrowed her whiskey-colored eyes at him. "You've got that funny hair and you talk weird."

"My father has hair like mine and I don't talk funny!" Kenji said, pushing himself up on his feet.

"Well, I think you do!" Chizuru said, also standing up and putting her hands on her hips. "So ... is your father a foreigner?"

"No! He's Japanese!" Kenji told her, exasperated. "Just like the rest of my family! Why do you care, anyway?"

Chizuru made an annoyed huff and looked away without answering. "Because her father's one." Another voice answered. The argument had woken one of the girls in the corner. She blinked at them with ink-dark eyes as she shifted carefully away from the other girl, who still slept.

"What's the big deal?" Kenji asked.

Chizuru's mouth dropped open. "I… Some people don't like me because I'm not Japanese."

Kenji shrugged. "That's a stupid reason not to like someone. At least you don't pretend to be nice and then drug other people's family in an inn."

"Is that how she got you?"

Kenji nodded and dropped his eyes to the ground. "Do you think they're okay?"

Chizuru shrugged and tilted her head to one side in curiosity, her eyes betraying subdued sympathy. "Did she get your parents?"

Kenji shook his head. "Don't think so ... Kaasan had a sword and Tousan's ... Tousan. But they got Yahiko – he's my big brother – and Sanosuke. Soujiro too, and Shishou."

Chizuru snorted and earned an affronted glare from Kenji. "It's what he told me to call him!" he defended. "Everyone else calls him Hiko-san. I _think_ he's my grandfather. Shishou trained Tousan. Tousan's first family he lost," Kenji said, a frown on his face. "I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about this. Tousan never does."

Chizuru drew Kenji with her towards the wall and sat down. "Tell it like a bedtime story."

The little girl called Neko opened her eyes and smiled… although the smile was a bit off and the eyes a bit bleary. "I like bedtime stories."

"I don't know much about it," Kenji told them. "But I ..." Commotion from the direction of the door screen cut him off, and Chizuru's eyes widened in fear. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him, stumbling, to where Neko and Emi knelt on the tatami.

Neko turned her sightless eyes toward them as they crowded closer together, but her attention remained focused on the scraping sounds of the screen being pushed aside.

Kenji too turned his attention to the sounds, but he couldn't get a grasp on who was coming or how dangerous they were. For the first time since arrival in the chamber, he began to feel a sick fear twisting itself in his stomach, just like the ki of the people walking into the room. It was impossible to read them, and he couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.

A smooth voice said something unintelligible, but Kenji immediately recognized as the okami of the inn and anger crowded out the fear. A sharp yank on his hair drew a surprised yelp out of him, and he looked over to find Chizuru's pale brown eyes glaring at him. A second set of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him further back, knocking him to the tatami next to Neko.

"What?"

"Be quiet. Don't say anything unless she asks you a question," Chizuru hissed.

Kenji glared at her and started to ask another question, but he was silenced by the eerily calm Neko. "Hush. You don't want to attract _her_ attention."

Kenji almost asked which 'her' as the okami glided through the drawn screen in a rustle of silk followed by the crunching steps of the woman who'd threatened to feed him to the dogs. Chizuru and Emi rose and bowed politely while Neko remained still and silent beside Kenji on the tatami.

"You were right, Keiko-kun. He's a very attractive little child," the okami said in a deceptively mild tone of voice, lowering herself to her knees in front of the tatami. With two fingers, she lifted Kenji's chin. "And I suspect you, little one, have a very famous father."

Kenji's nose wrinkled in confusion. Well, of course his father was famous. Everyone he'd ever met knew who Himura Kenshin was. Even the tofu merchant. "Um... I guess so?"

"A cold-blooded killer," Amaya continued, releasing Kenji's face and sweeping several steps away. "Famous for the blood he so effectively shed. But, it makes me wonder…." Her voice trailed off and a smile danced across her face before it disappeared. "It makes me wonder which whore he finally begat you with, little demon." Kenji growled at her. Whatever a "whore" was, it didn't sound very nice. "He's become quite a nuisance, in fact. And you are just what I need to call the demon of Kyoto off the hunt."

"Killin' him's still more effective," Keiko snorted. "Brat should give us enough time for a clear shot."

Kenji tried to rise to his feet and bare his teeth, but Neko grabbed his sleeve and raised her face. "Kenji-chan, who is there?"

"What, have you gone deaf now too?" Keiko asked sneeringly. "You remember me, I should hope."

Neko cringed and seemed to shrink back, but Kenji grabbed on to her hand. "You leave her alone! She can't even fight back!"

"It's your fault she's like that!" Chizuru snarled, straightening from the subservient bow she'd held until now. Her entire form trembled in fury as she advanced a step towards the harsh woman. "Your fault, you monster!"

Keiko's grip shifted on her weapon from casual to deadly, and the shaft end lashed out, catching Chizuru across the side of her chest. Chizuru tumbled, flung away from the others and into the wall with a sickening thud. "Far enough, little miss."

Emi ran to Chizuru, and ran an assessing eye over her. Kenji felt paralyzed by his grip on Neko's hand. He wanted to move, but knew the girl would not be able to hold on to her calm if she didn't have an anchor.

Amaya clapped her hands together twice. "You never fail to amuse me, Keiko-kun. I've seen enough for today and I've made my decision. We have business to take care of elsewhere."

Keiko still stood with fire in her eyes, her gaze moving from Kenji to Chizuru and back again. "Yes, Amaya-san," she said, and then smiled chillingly. "Anymore lip from you two, and I'll finish what I started with Hitomi. She won't have any appendages by the time I'm through with her. Understood?"

Keiko received three glares – murderous, pained, and calculating – in answer. She smiled and turned to follow her mistress. The screen slid closed after them with soft finality, and Neko released Kenji's hand. "Bring her here," Neko said in her quiet, bell-like voice as she nudged Kenji towards where Emi was helping a hissing Chizuru sit up. Between the two of them, Emi and Kenji managed to part-carry the wounded girl back to Neko and the Tatami. "Chizuru-chan, you're going to break something."

"Takes more than _her_ to break me, Neko," Chizuru grinned weakly.

"Mmmhmm," Neko hummed noncommittally, as she ran her seeing fingers over Chizuru's face and arms. "Where does it hurt, Chizuru-chan?"

Chizuru grimaced as Neko's clever fingers bumped a bruise on her side. "Ouch. Definitely there." Neko's lips tugged down in a frown of concentration as she probed the bruised skin, checking the damage.

"I don't think you're broken, this time," Neko announced, finishing her poking inspection before shuffling back from Chizuru, and folding her hands in her lap.

"We've got to get out of here," Kenji declared and rose to his feet, walking over to the screen. "It's not safe, and those ladies are evil."

Chizuru reached over and gave Neko a wordless hug before turning to Kenji. "We know it's not safe. What we don't know is how to get past that screen." She pointed at the door to their prison. "The guards are always there, and they can hear us coming."

Kenji thought for a moment. "I need a stick."

-----------------

**LadyChi's Notes:** I guess, first and foremost, we need to state that, despite all appearances, Chizuru is not ours. She's actually the property of Watsuki, who has stated that she is the future wife of Kenji. We've just... taken great artistic liberties with the model we were provided. Emi and Neko are based on friends of ours, and we do own their characters. Have a fabulous New Year, everyone! I wish you all the best for 2007.

**Kat's Notes:** Probable future wife. Watsuki hinted strongly that they would eventually end up together. Why are we bringing it up? Because we have nothing else to talk about! But, funny incident from the writing of this chapter. We were discussing who was stuck in there with Kenji, and decided that it would be amusing to stick him in with a bunch of girls. Almost immediately, we both IM'ed one another with "You know what would be fun? Making one of the girls his future girlfriend. Wait ... didn't she have a name?"

It truly sounded like Pinky and the Brain. "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Emerald Dragon, our beta, then choked when she "Emi". Oddly, the next question from _her_ was "are you going to kill her?" Emy trusts us not. (Well, she probably trusts Chi. She knows better than to trust me.)

Anyway, now that we've taken up enough of your time, thanks for reading! See you in a week or so.


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